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COIVRIGHT DEPOSir. 



THE POETS OF THE CHUBCH. 



SAEAH FULLER [FLOWER] ADAMS. 

1805-1848. 

Saeah Fuller was the second daughter of Ben- 
jamin Flower, "one of the fathers of English journal- 
ism." He was the son of George Flower (1715-1778), a 
wealthy tradesman of London, and one of the deacons of 
the dissenting congregation (Rev. Edward Hitchins), wor- 
shipping in "White's Row, Spitalfields, and was an intimate 
friend and correspondent of Toplady. The wife of George 
Flower was a sister of Richard and William Fuller, for 
whom two of her sons were named. The summer residence 
of the family was at Tooting, Surrey. There they became 
attached to the society under the care of the Rev. Samuel 
Wilton, D.D., and when in 1776 he became the pastor of 
the Weigh House Chapel, Little Eastcheap, London, they, 
too, became members of that society. Toplady, Flower, 
and Wilton all died the same year— 1778. Dr. Wilton was 
succeeded by the Rev. John Clayton, who, in 1779, married 
Mary, the elder daughter of Mrs. Flower. Of their children, 
three— John, George, and William— became Independent 
ministers, two of them London pastors of much distinction. 

Benjamin Flower, having been unfortunate in business, 
for five years served a commercial house at Rotterdam as a 
travelling agent, and, by his intercourse with politicians of 
the Continent, became a thorough radical. Returning to 
England in 1789, he became a resident of Cambridge, and, 
by the advice and aid of his brother Richard, of Hertford, 
started the Cambridge Intelligencer, a weekly paper of 



2 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

radical principles and of large circulation and influence, 
highly commended by the Westminster Jiemew (XY. 334). 
The freedom Avitli which he criticised the Bishop of Llan- 
daff resulted in a trial before the House of Lords, and a 
brief imprisonment in Newgate. Shortly after his release, 
about 1800, he was united in marriage with Miss Gould, an 
excellent and highly-gifted lady of Dorsetshire. In 1804 
the IntellU/encer was discontinued, and he removed to Har- 
low, in Essex, where he opened a printing office and estab- 
lished the Political Review, a radical monthly. He had 
also a publishing office at No. 69 Cornhill, London. 

Such was the father of Mrs. Adams, and such were the 
influences that helped in the formation of her character. 
Her elder sister, Eliza, was born (1803) at Cambridge. She 
herself was born February 22d, 1805, at Harlow. Her 
mother did not long survive, and the sisters thus came more 
directly under the formative hand of their father, a liberal 
both in politics and religion. At his death, about 1825, 
they gave themselves to literary pursuits, and soon after 
removed to Upper Clayton, a suburb of London. The elder 
sister, in 1831, obtained considerable distinction by the 
publication of her " Musical Hlustrations of the Waverley 
Novels." They now attached themselves to the religious 
society worshipping in South Place, Finsbury, under the 
pastoral care of the gifted and eloquent William Johnson 
Fox (1787-1864). This gentleman had separated himself 
from the Indei3endents, and had taken a j^osition, uncon- 
nected with any ecclesiastical body, as a preacher or lec- 
turer in this chapel. Though classed among the Unitarians, 
he was neither a rationalist nor a sympathizer with Chai- 
ning or Martineau. He was one of the founders of the 
Westminster Remew, and, from 1847 to 1862 (with the ex- 
ception of a few months in 1852), a member of Parliament 
for Oldliam, Lancashire. 

Sarah Fuller Flower became, in 1834, the wife of William 
Bridges Adams, a civil engineer, who, in 1837, distinguished 
himself as the author of an elaborate volume on " English 
Pleasure Carriages," and another on " Tlie Construction of 



SAEAH FULLER [FLOWER] ADAMS. 3 

Common Roads and Eailroads." He was also a contributor 
to some of the principal reviews and newspapers. The 
union thus formed was most congenial. They resided at 
St. John's Wood, on Hampstead, London. 

In 1841 Mrs. Adams gave to the press a dramatic poem, 
in five acts, on the martyrdom of "Yivia Perpetua." The 
youthful mother whose faith she thus commemorated suf- 
fered heroically at Carthage, Africa, a.d. 203, as a devoted 
follower of Christ (Butler's "Lives of the Saints," March 
7). It is more than probable that Mrs. Adams was in full 
sympathy with the heroine of her drama. At the solicita- 
tion of her pastor, she also contributed thirteen hymns to 
the compilation prepared by him for the use of his chapel, 
published 1840-'41, in two parts, six in the first and seven in 
the second part. Of these, the two best known—" Nearer, 
my God! to Thee," and "He sendeth sun, he sendeth 
shower" — are in the second part. For this work her sis- 
ter, Eliza, wrote sixty-two tunes. Mrs. Adams' only other 
publication, a catechism for children, entitled " The Flock 
at the Fountain," appeared in 1845. 

Inheriting the feeble organization of their mother, the 
sisters soon yielded to disease. Eliza, after a lingering, ill- 
ness, expired December 12, 1846. Worn down by faithful 
devotion to the invalid, Mrs. Adams' health gradually de- 
clined, and she closed her earthly pilgrimage August 14, 
1848, with entire resignation and joyful hope. " She Avore 
away," as one of her friends testifies, "almost her last 
breath bursting into unconscious song as the gentle spirit 
glided from its beautiful frame." The foUoAving stanza, 
from one of her own lovely hymns, in " Yivia Perpetua," 
fitly expresses her trust in Christ : 

" Part in peace — Chi'ist's life was peace ; 

Let tis live our life in Him ; 
Part in peace — Christ's death was peace ; 

Let us die our death in Him. 
Part in peace — Christ promise gave 
Of a life beyond the grave, 
Where all mortal paintings cease : 
Brethren, sisters ! part in peace." 



4 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Her remains Avere laid to rest in the Forest Street biirial- 
gronnd, near Harlow, lier native place. Her uncle, Richard 
Flower, emigrated to America in 1822, and founded the 
town of Albion, 111. Sir Roundell Palmer was misinformed 
when he A\Tote that Mrs. Adams also "left England for 
America." Her hymn, 

" Nearer, my Grod ! to Thee,'' etc., 

was introduced to American Christians in the "Service 
Book," published (1844) by Rev. James Freeman Clarke, 
D.D., of Boston, Mass., whence it was soon transferred to 
other collections. 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 

1672-1719. 

The father and grandfather of Joseph Addison were both 
clergymen of the Church of England, and each was named 
Launcelot. The poet was the son of Launcelot Addison, 
D.D. (1632-1703), and Jane Gulston, the sister of the Rev. 
William Gulston, D. D. , Bishop of Bristol, England. Joseph 
was born at Wilston, in Wiltshire, May 1, 1672, the second 
of five children. Dr. Addison, who had been appointed in 
1670 Chaplain to the King, was, in 1683, made Dean of 
Lichfield. He was the author of several theological works, 
and in 1699 published a volume of "Devotional Poems, 
Festival and Practical." 

Joseph Addison inherited his father's love of learning. 
He was educated first at home, then at Amesbury and Salis- 
bury, finishing his preparatory course at the Charter House, 
London. At the age of fifteen he entered Queen's College, 
Oxford, of which his father was a graduate. Two years 
later (1689) he was transferred to Magdalen College. Hav- 
ing obtained distinction in Latin ver,se, he graduated ]\I.A. 
in 1693. Several of his minor poems ajipeared (1693, 1694) 
in the third and fourth volumes of Dryden's " Miscellane- 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 5 

ous Poems." A poem addressed to King William, celebrat- 
ing one of liis military campaigns, appeared in 1695, and 
led to his obtaining in 1699 a royal pension of £300 a year. 
A Latin poem, in 1697, on the " Peace of Ryswick," added 
to his renown. A year was spent at Blois, in France, and 
two years in travelling on the Continent. By the death of 
King William, in 1702, his pension was lost, and he re- 
turned home to engage anew in literary pursuits. 

In 1704 he ingratiated himself into the favor of the 
Ministry by the publication of his poetical " Campaign," a 
laudation of Marlborough and the battle of Blenheim. The 
same year he succeeded John Locke, as Excise Commis- 
sioner of Appeals. His " Remarks on Italy " appeared in 
1705. The following year he became Under Secretary of 
State, and in 1709 Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 
land, and Keeper of the Records in Birmingham Tower. 
Another ministerial revolution in 1710 de^Drived him of 
office for four years. His leisure was employed in literary 
work. He wrote five essays for the Whig Examiner, and 
was a frequent contributor to TJie Tatler, edited by his 
schoolmate and intimate friend, Sir Richard Steele. Tlie 
Tatler came to an end January 2, 1711, and Tlie Spectator, 
No. 1, appeared March 1, 1711. It was continued in 655 
Numbers, daily (Sundays excepted), until December 6, 1712. 
It was revived June 18, 1714, and continued in 80 numbers, 
thrice a week, until December 20, 1714. Of this celebrated 
series of periodical essays, Addison, as " Clio," was one of 
the principal editors. He contributed also about fifty 
papers, in 1713, to The Guardian, and to The Freeholder, 
1715, 1716. 

A volume of his "Poems" was issued in 1712, and his 
"Cato: a Tragedy," in 1713. Queen Anne died in 1714, 
and Addison again came into favor and obtained prefer- 
ment — first as secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 
then in 1716 as one of the lords of trade, and in 1717 as 
Secretary of State and a privy councillor. He held a seat 
in Parliament from 1708, with the exception of a short in- 
terval in 1709, until his decease. By his literary fame he 



6 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

won the hand of the Countess-Dowager of Warwick and 
Holland, to whom he was married August 2, 1716, becom- 
ing thus the nominal master of the famous Holland House, 
where he died in peace June 17, 1719. An infant daughter 
survived him. The marriage proved uncongenial, and 
drove him into indulgences which probably shortened his 
life. Tickell, to whom was entrusted the publication of his 
" Works," celebrated his praise in an elegy addressed to his 
step-son, the Earl of Warwick. In this ode occur the fol- 
lowing lines : 

. ..." Of just and good he reasoned strong, 
Cleared some great truth, or raised some serious song; 
There patient showed us the wise course to steer, 
A candid censor and a friend severe ; 
There taught us how to hve, and — oh ! too high 
The price for knowledge — taught us how to die." 

The allusion in the last line is thought to refer to his last 
interview \\T.th the gay young earl, — " I have sent for you," 
he said, " that you may see how a Christian can die." 

The son and grandson of clergymen, Addison had been 
designed for the Church, but the prospect of political pre- 
ferment and iDower drew him into another line of life. He 
never, however, forswore his faith in Christ. The savor 
of divine truth, and oft of godliness, pervades both his 
poetry and prose. The five well-known hymns, by which 
he has endeared himself so greatly to the Christian world, 
appeared at intervals in The Spectator. The paper (No. 
441) for Saturday, July 26, 1712, treats of Man's Depend- 
ence on the Care of the Almighty, and closes in these 
words : " David has very beautifully represented this reli- 
ance on God Almighty in his Twenty-third Psalm, which 
is a Idnd of Pastoral Hjonn, and filled with those aUusions 
which are used in that kind of writing. As the poetry is 
very exquisite, I shall present my readers with the follow- 
ing translation of it : 

' The Lord my pasture shall prepare,' " etc. 
Eefreshed in spirit, doubtless, by these sweet utterances, 
he gave his readers, a fortnight later— Saturday, August 9, 



JOSEPH ADDISON. 7 

1712 (ISTo. 453) — another specimen of liis familiarity with 
the sacred Muse. His theme is " Gratitude," and he says 
at the close : " I have already communicated to the public 
some pieces of divine poetry, and, as they have met with a 
very favorable reception, I shall from time to time publish 
any work of the same nature which has not yet appeared 
in print and may be acceptable to my readers." Then fol- 
lows that precious testimony to the loving-kindness and 
grace of the Almighty : 

"When all thy mercies, O my God," etc., 

in thirteen stanzas. 

It is worthy of note that ten days after — August 19, 1712 
— Addison published a communication from the Rev. Isaac 
Watts with his version of the 114th Psalm : 

" When Israel freed from Pharaoh's hand," etc. 

Addison was but two years older than Watts, and may 
have been led into the writing of hymns by the publica- 
tion of Watts' hymns, 1707-1709, with which he had un- 
doubtedly been made acquainted. 

Again, at the close of another fortnight — August 23, 1712 
— he discoursed (No. 465) of the Means of Confirming 
One's Faith in God, and, as conducive to it, advises " Re- 
tirement from the World," and "Religious Meditation." 
" The Supreme Being," he says, " has made the best argu- 
ments for his own existence in the formation of the heav- 
ens and the earth, and these are arguments which, a man 
of sense can not forbear attending to who is out of the 
noise and hurry of human affairs." "The Psalmist has 
very beautiful strokes of poetry to this purpose in that 
exalted strain, — ' The heavens declare the glory of God,' " 
etc. "As such a bold and sublime manner of thinking 
furnishes very noble matter for an ode, the reader may see 
it wrought into the following one : 

' The spacious firmament on high,' " etc. 
Such was the origin of that ode — so grand, noble, and ma- 



8 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

jestic, known and sung everywhere tlirougliont tlie English- 
speaking workl. Thackeray, referang particularly to the 
stanza beginning with, 

" Soon as the evening shades prevail," 

remarks : " It seems to me those verses shine like the stars. 
They shine out of a great, deep calm. When he turns to 
heaven a Sabbath comes over that man's mind, and his face 
lights up from it with a glory of thanks and prayer." 

A period of four weeks now intervened, and on Saturday, 
September 20, 1712, he treated (No. 489) of the Grandeur 
of the Ocean, as suggestive of the greater Grandeur of the 
Creation ; alludes to the fact that he had '• made several 
voyages upon the sea," and often been tossed in storms ; 
refers to Ps. cvii. 23-30 as giving a better description of a 
ship in a storm than any he had ever met with : and then 
says of his essay : " I shall accompany it with a divine ode 
made by a gentleman upon the conclusion of his travels : 

' How are thy servants blessed, O Lord ! ' " etc. 

It is in ten stanzas. The hymn may have been written in 
1 703, when Addison returned from his travels abroad. 

A month passed, and on Saturday, October 18th (No. 
.^12), he published an essay on the Apprehension of Death 
and Judgment, as experienced on a bed of severe illness, 
and appended to it a hymn that he had composed while 
thus afflicted : 

"When rising from the bed of death," etc. 

In the fifth of his six stanzas Addison wrote, 

"And hear my Saviour's dying groans, 
To give those sorrows weight " ; 

a plea that needs to be considerably qualified to meet the 
demands of Scriptural orthodoxy. 

Thackeray well observes : " If Swift's life was the most 
wTetched, 1 think Addison's was one of the most enviable 



CECIL FRANCES [HDIIPHEEYS] ALEXANDER. 9 

— a life prosperous and beautiful, a calm death, an immense 
fame, and affection afterward for his liappy and spotless 
name." 



CECIL FRANCES [HUMPHREYS] ALEXANDER. 

Mrs. Alexander is an Irish lady, the daughter of Ma- 
jor Humphreys, Strabane, County Tyrone, where she was 
born and educated. At an early age she gave evidence of 
superior intellectual gifts. In 1846 she became known to 
the world of song by her " Verses for Holy Seasons for the 
Use of School-rooms," edited by the Rev. Walter Farquhar 
Hook, D.D., Vicar of Leeds, Two years afterward (1848) 
she published, with the imprimatur of the Rev. John Ke- 
ble, her " Hymns for Little Children," of which more than 
250,000 copies have been sold. The " Hymns " are a series 
of short poems on the clauses .of the Apostles' Creed, the 
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. The same 
year she gave to the i3ress "The Baron's Little Daughter." 

Miss Humj)hreys in 1850 became the wife of the Rev. 
William Alexander, a native of Londonderry, the son of 
an Irish clergyman and a cousin of the late Earl of Cale- 
don. Having served for years as rector of several imxDort- 
ant parishes, in 1864 he was made Dean of Emly, and, in 
1807, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. 

In the midst of her domestic and parochial cares Mrs. 
Alexander found time to cultivate her poetic gifts. In 
1857 she published her "Narrative Hymns"; in 1858, 
"Hymns Descriptive and Devotional"; and, in 1859, "The 
Legend of the Golden Prayer, and other Poems." She has 
also published " Moral Songs," " Poems on Subjects in the 
Old Testament," and " The Lord of the Forest and his Vas- 
sals : an Allegory." In 1865 she edited " The Sunday Book 
of Poetry," one of the " Golden Treasury Series." 

She resides at Londonderry, Ireland, and devotes the 
proceed 5 of her publications to the support of a deaf-muto 



10 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

school in lier neigliborliood. She has ever taken a deep 
interest in the welfare of the poor, and especially of the 
young, for whom nearly all her books and poems have 
been written. A lovely spirit — devout and heavenly, meek 
and gentle— pervades all her writings. " May this volume," 
she says in the Preface to her " Sunday Book of Poetry," 
" in some measure tend to make Sunday a i)leasant day to 
children. May it help to teach them to praise God, the Fa- 
ther, Son, and Sj^irit ; to contemplate life and death and 
their own hearts as Christians should ; to understand the 
spirit of the Bible ; and, through this fair creation, to look 
up to Him who is its Creator. " 



JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER. 

1804-1859. 

This accomplished scholar and divine was of Scotch- 
Irish descent. The home of the Alexanders was the 
beautiful and romantic valley of Virginia. The father of 
James, afterward the celebrated theologian of Princeton 
Seminary— Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D. [1772-1851]— 
in 1802 married Janetta, daughter of James Waddel, the; 
eloquent " Blind Preacher " of Wirt's "British Spy." At 
the residence of her father, on an estate called Hopewell, 
at the Junction of Louisa, Orange, and Albemarle Counties, 
Virginia, she gave birth, March 13, 1804, to her eldest 
son, to whom she gave her father's honored name. 

In his fourth year, his parents became residents of Phila- 
delphia, Pa.; and in his ninth year, of Princeton, N. J. 
At the early age of thirteen, he entered the College of New 
Jersey, and, having distinguished himself for his scholar- 
ship, graduated September, 1820 ; entered the Princeton 
Theological Seminary in 1821 ; was appointed in April, 
1824, Mathematical Tutor in the College of New Jersey ; 



JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER H 

was licensed by the Presbytery of N"ew Brunswick, Octo- 
ber 4, 1825 ; removed at the close of the same year to Vir- 
ginia, and was ordained to the work of the ministry, March 
13, 1827, by the Presbytery of Hanover. He was pastor of 
the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton, N". J., from 
January 10, 1829, until the end of October, 1832. In No- 
vember, he became editor of The Presbyterian of Phila- 
delphia, relinquishing this position at the end of a year, 
to become Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres in the 
College of New Jersey. 

After nearly twelve years' occupation of his Professor- 
ship, he accepted a call from the Duane Street Presbyterian 
Church of New York City, and October 2, 1844, entered 
once more on the pastoral work. In June, 1849, he accepted 
tjie Professorship of Ecclesiastical History and Church 
Government in Princeton Theological Seminary, to which 
he had been elected by the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church, and returned again to his beloved 
Princeton. The summer of 1851 was most profitably spent 
in Europe, and, on his return, in October, he became the 
pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New 
York, composed mainly of members of his previous pas- 
toral charge. In this responsible and influential position, 
highly honored and greatly useful, he continued until his 
decease, which occurred very unexpectedly at Sweet Briar 
Springs, Ya., July 31, 1859. 

Dr. Alexander belonged to a family of rare gifts and 
superior scholarship, and in his own person fully sustained 
the high character of his lineage. As a Christian minister, 
as a ready writer, as a ripe scholar, as a correct and pro- 
found thinker, as a pulpit orator, and as a faithful pastor, 
he had few superiors. 

His active and versatile mind found frequent expression 
in the periodical press. His other publications also were 
numerous, and as popular as they were practical and use- 
ful. His contributions to the Princeton Quarterly Remew^ 
through a long term of years, were frequent and powerful. 
He wrote more than thirty volumes for the American Sun- 



12 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

day-scliool Union, including Ms well-known work, "The 
American Sunday- School and its Adjuncts." Other works 
that he gave to the press, at vaiious dates, were his " Gift 
to the Afflicted "; " The American Mechanic and Working- 
Man's Companion," in 2 vols. ; " Thoughts on Family Wor 
shij)"; "Consolation: in Discourses on Select Topics, ad- 
dressed to the Su£fering People of God"; " Memoir of Rev. 
Archibald Alexander, D.D."; "Plain Words to a Young 
Communicant," and "Discourses on Common Topics of 
Christian Faith and Practice." 

From an early age, he amused his leisure hours with po- 
etic essays — mainly as a literary recreation. He took a 
deep interest in Hymnology. In 1845, he contemplated 
the compilation of " a small Hymn Book, to contain none 
but unaltered hymns, about 250," An article from his pen 
in the Princeton Remew for 1850, on " German H^^nnol- 
ogy," shows how earnestly and successfully he had studied 
the fascinating and fruitful theme. In the New York Ob- 
server for April 24, 1830, will be found his translation 
(under the signature of "Didymus") of Gerhardt's "O 
Haupt voll Blut und Wunden ": 

" O sacred liead, now wounded," etc. 

He contributed, also, to the Kirchenfreund, April, 1859, 
a few months only before his decease, that peculiarly sweet 
and exquisite version of Bernard's Latin hymn : " Jesu ! 
dulcis memoria," — beginning with 

" Jesus ! how sweet thy mem'ry is ! " 

The last four stanzas are as follows : 

" If thou dost enter to the heart, 
Then shmes the truth in every part, 
All worldly vanities grow vile, 
And charity hums bright the while. 

* ' This love of Jesus is most sweet ; 
This laud of Jesus is most meet ; 
Thousand and thousand times more dear 
Than tongue of man can utter here. 



WILLIAM LINDSAY ALEXANDER. 13 

"Praise Jesus, all, with one accord! 
Crave Jesus, all, your love and Lord ! 
Seek Jesus, warmly, all below, 
And, seeking, into rapture glow ! 

"Thou art of heavenly grace the Fount; 
Thou art the true Sun o' God's mount; 
Scatter the saddening cloud of night, 
And pour upon us glorious light." 



WILLIAM L^DSAY ALEXANDER. 

1808 . 

The Rev. De. William Lindsay Alexat^dee occupies 
a position of great eminence among tlie Congregationalists 
of Scotland. He was born August 24, 1808, at Leitli. At 
an early age lie was placed under tlie tuition of the Rev. 
Dr. Jamieson, at East Linton, by whom he was fitted for a 
collegiate course. He was, for three years, connected with 
the University of Edinburgh; and, for two years, with the 
University of St. Andrew's. Among his instructors, dur- 
ing this period, was Dr. Thomas Chalmers. 

In 1828, at the age of twenty, he was appointed Classical 
Tutor in the Independent Theological Academy at Black- 
burn, England,— removed in 1842 to Manchester, and known 
as the "Lancashire Independent College." After a brief 
pastorate— 1832 to 1835— at Newington Chapel, Liverpool, 
he accepted a call to the pastoral charge of Argyle Square 
Chapel, Edinburgh, which position he has most ably fiUed 
for nearly forty years. 

In 1854, he was appointed Professor of Theology and 
Church History in the Theological Hall of the Congrega- 
tional Churches of Scotland, as the successor of the Rev. 
Dr. Wardlaw, since whose death, in 1853, he has been the 
acknowledged leader of the denomination in Scotland. As 
a preacher, a theologian, a scholar, and an author, he ranks 



14 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

deservedly among the first men in the land. In 1861. he 
was appointed Examiner in Philosophy at the University 
of St. Andrew's (whence came his degree of D.D.); and, in 
1870, a member of the Old Testament Revision Company. 

Tlie publications by which he has acquired his literary 
fame are the following : " The Congregational Lecture for 
1840, on the Connection and Harmony of the Old and New 
Testaments " (1841) ; " Lectures to Young Men " (1842) ; 
" Anglo-Catholicism not Ai^ostolical," in reply to " Tracts 
for the Times " (1843) ; " Memoir of the Rev. J. Watson " 
(1845); "Switzerland and the Swiss Churches" (1846); 
" lona, the Ancient British Church " (1852) ; " Christ and 
Christianity " (1854) ; " Memoirs of the Life and Writings 
of Ralph Wardlaw, D.D." (1856) ; "Christian Thought and 
Work " (1862) ; " St. Paul at Athens " (1865) ; and the 
elaborate Articles in the eighth edition of the " Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica," on "Moral Philosophy," "Scripture," and 
"Theology." He has made frequent contributions to the 
Periodicals of the day, and was the editor of the third 
edition of Kitto's "Encyclopaedia of Biblical Literature." 

His interest in Hjniinology is attested by his " Augustine 
Hymn Book " (1849), and the contribution of several hymns 
to the Scottish Congregational Hymn Book, and the United 
Presbyterian Hymn Book. The hymn, 

" Spirit of power, and truth and love," 

is a fair sijecimen of his poetic talent. A stanza is also 
subjoined from his " Last Wish." He longs to hear of the 
land of rest beyond the skies ; 

" Oh! yes, let me hear of its blissful bowel's. 
And its trees of life, and its fadeless flowers ; 
Of the crystal streets and its radiant throng. 
With then' harps of gold and their endless song ; 
Of its glorious palms and its raiment white. 
And its streamlets all lucid with living light ; 
And its emerald plains, where the ransomed stray, 
'Mid the bloom and the bliss of a changeless day." 



JAMES ALLEN. 15 

JAMES ALLEN. 

1734-1804. 

James, son of Oswald Allen, was of Yorkshire, England, 
and was born June 24, 1734, at Gayle. He was designed 
for tlie ministry of the Clinrcli of England, and was fitted 
for college chiefly nnder the instruction of a Rev. Mr. l^o- 
ble, at Scorton School, near Richmond, Yorkshire. He 
entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1751. At the 
expiration of a year, on a visit to Yorkshire, he was re- 
ceived into Mr. Ingham's Connection, and, full of zeal, 
immediately became an itinerant preacher. He is spoken 
of by Charles Wesley, in his journal, October 17, 17o6, as 
both " modest and discreet," as well as zealous and faith- 
ful in his work. He and William Batty, about this time, 
were aj)pointed the two general elders of the Connection. 

On a visit to Scotland, in 1761, with Mr. Batty, his views 
were considerably modified by his intercourse with the 
societies under the care of Messrs. Glas and Sandeman. 
Soon after, he left the Ingham Connection, and joined the 
Sandemanians. "My eyes," he says, "were never fully 
opened till the latter end of October, 1762. How am I 
now ashamed of my preaching and the hymn book I was 
concerned in printing ! Almost everj^ page puts me to the 
blush." Shortly after, he left the Sandemanians also, and 
gave up the itineracy. Retiring to his paternal inheritance ' 
at Gayle, he built a chapel on his own grounds, where he con- 
tinued to officiate statedly until his decease, October 31, 
1804. Seventeen of his later hymns he published at Gayle, 
with the title of " Christian Songs." A second edition was 
published in 1805. Many of his hymns, inferior as they 
were, found a place in the collections of Madan, Lady 
Huntingdon, Conyer, Toplady, Edwards, and the Moravi- 
ans. 

The only one of his hjanns that is worthy of preserva- 
tion in its original form, is 

" Glory to God on high," etc. 



16 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

The familiar hymn, beginning 

" Sweet the moments, ricli in blessing," 

IS taken from Lady Huntingdon's collection (Revised edi- 
tion of 1774), and owes its present form to the Hon. and 
Rev. Walter Shirley. It is a reconstruction of a hymn by 
Allen, found in the first edition of the Kendal Hymn Book, 
beft'inninc; with : 



' While my Jesus I'm possessing. 
Great's the happiness I know. 



The original has six double stanzas, the last of which is 
as follows : 

" May I still enjoy this feeling, 

In all need to Jesus go : 
Prove his wounds each day more healing, 

And from thence salvation draw : 
May I love the Spirit's unction, 

Filling me with holy shame ; 
Still retain a close connection 

With the person of the Lamb." 



OSWALD ALLEN. 

1816 . 

" Hymns of the Cheistian Life " was published at 
London, 1862. The volume contains 148 hymns, by Oswald 
Allen, a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Oswald, 
the father of James Allen, noticed on a previous page. 
John Allen, for more than half a century, has been a suc- 
cessful banker at Kirkby-Lonsdale, Westmoreland, England, 
where his son Oswald was born in 1816. An invalid from 
his boyhood, and a lifelong sufferer from a diseased spine, 
he was educated tenderly at home, and has, from his child- 



OSWALD ALLEN. 17 

hood, been restricted to a sedentary life. Three years 
(1843-184G) were spent, with comparative health, in Glas-' 
gow, with fair business prospects. But the recurrence of 
his constitutional malady compelled him to return to his 
home at Kirkby-Lonsdale. Since 1848 he has held an hon- 
orable position in his father's bank — devoting himself in 
the intervals of business, as his strength has permitted, to 
works of benevolence and mercy among the poor, the sick, 
and the suffering. Secluded at home, during the severe 
winter of 1859-1860, he found a genial and cheering recrea- 
tion in the composition of his " Hymns of the Christian 
Life." In the preface, dated October, 1861, he says : " Hav- 
ing so often felt and witnessed the soothing and elevating- 
effect of hymns upon the human heart, the author has been 
encouraged to hope that the f ollo^ving, which cheered his 
own spirit, may, with the Divine blessing, be a comfort and 
a consolation to others." 

The piety, humility, and tenderness of the unassuming 
poet may be seen, somewhat, in the following dedication of 
his book : 

* ' To Thee, my God, my Saviour, and my Friend, 
I humbly offer, as I lowly bend. 
The first famt warblings of my gTateful soul, — 
Prelude to alleluias soon to roll, 
When with my harp among the blest on high, 
I sweep the strains of heaven-born harmony — 
Oh ! give them power to cheer the lonely way 
Of some benighted one, and sing of day ; 
To raise the fallen — wipe away the tear— 
And tell the desolate that Thou art near. 
Oh ! grant that they ambassadors may be, 
Their blessed privilege to speak of Thee ; 
To show Thy glory — to exalt Thy praise — 
And hymn the wonders of Thy works and ways. 
With Thee my humble offering now I leave. 
For Jesu's sake, this offering, Lord! receive, — 
Vouchsafe Thy blessing on these simple lays, 
And Thine be all the glory and the praise." 



18 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

HENRY ALLINE. 

1748-1785. 

Mr. Alline, the son of William and Rebecca AUine, 
was born June 14, 1748, at Ne^^^ort, R. I., whither his 
parents had removed from Boston, Mass., their native place. 
In his twelfth year (1760) the family migrated to the 
neighborhood of Falmouth, Nova Scotia. The rudeness 
of the country subjected them to many privations a,nd 
hardships, so that Henry was debarred the privileges of a 
school education, after his removal from Rhode Island. 
His parents had early attached themselves to what were- 
then known as " New Lights," and brought up their seven 
children in the fear of God. 

In his 27th year, after a season of deep conviction, 
he was hopefully converted, ISIarch 26, 1775, and, the fol- 
lowing year, devoted himself to the work of the ministry. 
He was ordained, April 6, 1779, by a Congregational Coun- 
cil, at Falmouth, N. S. Owing to his limited education, 
he became a travelling rather than a settled preacher, and 
exercised his ministry with marked success, in Falmouth, 
Newport, Truro, Windsor, Horton, Cornwall is, Wilmot, 
Annapolis, Granville, Sackville, Liverpool, Halifax, Lehave, 
Malegast, Port Midway, and other places in Nova Scotia ; 
also at St. John, Fort Howe, Magerville, and elsewhere 
in New Brunswick. He travelled as far west as North 
Hampton, New Hampshire, where, February 2, 1784, at the 
house of the Rev. David McClure, pastor of the Congre- 
gational Church of that town, he closed his earthly career. 
He was fond of sacred poetry, and wrote 300 or more 
hymns, " full of love and zeal for Christ, and the salvation 
of souls." 



AMBROSE. 19 

AMBROSE. 

340-397. 

To Ambeose, Bishop of Milan, is conceded the high honor 
of being the father of sacred song in the Latin Church. 
Jerome conii)lains of the introduction of theatrical songs 
and melodies in the music of the Church of that period. 
Ambrose not only reformed the prevailing psalmody, 
but he introduced also the hymnody and antiphonal sing- 
ing of the Greek into the Latin Church. The earliest Latin 
hymns are traced to the fourth century. The best of these 
are attributed to Ambrose. Tliey are modelled after the 
Latin poets ; are, for the most part, of four-line stanzas ; 
having lines of equal length in metrical form. To him we 
owe the six and eight syllable iambics which so commonly 
prevail in English hymnody. 

The date of his birth has not been fully determined. 
Some say that it was a.d. 333 and others a.d, 340 when he 
was born at Treves in Gaul, his father being at the time the 
praetorian prefect of the province. He was the youngest 
of three children. After his father's decease his mother 
returned to Rome, where, with his brother Satyrus, and his 
sister Marcellina, he was piously and liberally educated. 
Bred to the law and excelling in his profession, he was 
appointed by Anicius Probus prsetorian prefect of Italy — a 
member of his council. So favorably was Probus im- 
pressed with his great abilities and moral worth, as to 
give him the appointment, a.d. 369, of consular prefect of 
Liguria, the northern portion of Italy, with Milan as his 
capital. " Go," said he, " and govern Liguria more like a 
bishop than a judge." His administration confirmed his 
reputation as a wise, discreet, and righteous ruler. 

The times were exceedingly turbulent. The old pagan 
practices in that part of Italy had not wholly been laid 
aside. Paganism was still struggling for ascendency. 
The apostate emperor, Julian, had passed away only seven 
years before. Auxentius, an Arian, was bishop of Milan, 



20 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

The poxmlace were divided into three contending factions 
— Athanasian, Arian, and Pagan. These rival parties at 
the decease of Anxentins, a.d. 374, made desperate strug- 
gles to secure the position for one of their own adherents. 
At the time appointed for the election in the Church, so 
furious was the contention that the prefect Ambrose 
deemed his presence and remonstrances necessary to quell 
the tumult. So effectually did he control the swaying mul- 
titude, and such confidence had they in his piety and wis- 
dom, that presently a cry was made all over the house, 
" Ambrose ! Ambrose ! ! he is the man for us " — and, in 
spite of his earnest protest that he was neither a priest 
nor a theologian, he was elected bishop by acclamation. 
Yielding at length to the popular will he was baptized 
November 30th and ordained bishop December 7, 374. 
Thenceforth he devoted all his worldly resources and all 
his energies of body and soul to the work of purifying and 
extending the Church. 

Ambrose was thoroughly orthodox, and was justly 
claimed as an Athanasian. Of course, the Arian party 
took sides against him. The queen-mother, Justina, was 
an Arian, and demanded one of the churches of Milan for 
the use of that sect. Ambrose refused, and a long and vio- 
lent struggle ensued. At length, when the bishop was cele- 
brating divine worship, guards were set by the civil and 
military authorities about the church. None were suffered 
to leave. All night they were shut up in the sanctuary. 
" Then it was instituted," says Augustine, his pupil, " that, 
after the manner of the Eastern churches, hymns and 
psalms should be sung, lest the people should wax faint 
through the tediousness of sorrow, — and from that day to 
this the custom is retained,— divers (yea, almost all) thy 
congregations throughout other parts of the world follow- 
ing herein." 

The bishop triumphed, and Arianism was overcome. 
To keep up the custom thus inaugurated, Ambrose A\Tote 
his stirring hymns. They were taken up by the people 
as battle-cries, and became immensely popular. Their in- 



AMBROSE. 21 

fluence was mighty. " How did I weep," says Augustine, 
" through thy hymns and canticles, touched to the quick 
by the voices of thy sweet-attuned church ! The voices 
sank into mine ears, and the truth distilled into my heart, 
whence the affections of my devotions overflowed, tears ran 
down, and happy was I therein." Again: "When I re- 
member the tears I shed in the psalmody of thy church, in 
the beginning of my recovered faith, and how at this time 
I am moved — not with the singing, but with the things 
sung, when they are sung with a clear voice and modula- 
tion most suitable, I acknowledge the great use of this 
institution." 

Ambrose himself, in reply to objectors, said : " A grand 
thing is that singing, and nothing can stand before it. 
For what can be more telling than that confession of the 
Trinity which a whole population utters day by day ? For 
all are eager to proclaim their faith, and in measured strains 
have learned to confess Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 

The number of " Ambrosian Hymns," according to Dan- 
iel, is ninety-two ; biit many of these were doubtless of a 
later date, though constructed after the model of Ambrose. 
Not more than twelve of the whole number have been gen- 
erally conceded to be from his pen. 

The authorship) of that wonderfully popular chant, 

" Te Deum laudamxis, te Dominum confitemur," etc., 

has been very fully and ably discussed by Daniel, ii. 280- 
294. Though attributed to Ambrose, it is more properly 
classified as merely Ambrosian. Parts of it appear to have 
been in use among the Greeks at an early day. Ambrose 
may have given it something of its present shape, and later 
Latin writers may have perfected it. Of this splendid out- 
burst of praise, Mrs. Charles, in her "Christian Life in 
Song," thus writes : 

" It is at once a hymn, a creed, and a prayer — or rather it 
is a creed taking wing and soaring heavenward ; it is faith 
seized with a sudden joy as she counts her treasures and 
laying them at the feet of Jesus in a song ; it is the incense 



22 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

of prayer rising so near the rainbow round tlie throne as to 
catch its light and become radiant as well as fragrant — a 
cloud of incense illumined with a cloud of glory." 

Daniel in the 21st verse has " gloria munemvi,^^ instead 
of " in gloria numerari," as in the received versions. The 
former is undoubtedly the true rendering, and is, by far, 
more expressive. 

Ambrose abounded in labors, not only in the improve- 
ment of public worship, but in defence of the truth and 
the enlargement of the Church. His published " Works " 
ure numerous. Having overcome all opposition and estab- 
lished himself firmly in the affections of his people he fell 
asleep April 3, a.d. 397. 



Al^GELUS SILESIUS. 

1624-1677. 
[See "John Scheffler."] 



JOSEPH ANSTICE. 

1808-1836. 

A VOLUME of "Hymns by the Rev. Joseph Anstice, 
M.A.," London, 1836, was privately printed by his widow. 
It contains fifty- four hymns. 

He was the second son of William Anstice, Esq., and was 
born in Shropshire in 1808. In his fourteenth year he en- 
tered Westminster School, was chosen a king's scholar, and, 
at the close of his course, elected to Christ Church College, 
Oxford. In his coUegiate course he gained the two Eng- 
lish prizes. He graduated B.A. as a double first-class 
scholar early in 1831. Though but in his twenty -third 
year he was appointed Professor of Classical Literature, 



HAERIET AUBER. 23 

King's College, London, and delivered his first lecture Oc- 
tober 17, 1831. In tlie summer of 1832 he married Eliza- 
beth SjDencer Ruscombe, eldest daughter of Joseph Rus- 
combe Poole, Esq., of Bridgewater. Three years later he 
was compelled by the failure of his health to resign his 
professorship. He then removed to Torquay, where, after 
a continual decline, he departed this life February 29, 1836, 
in the twenty-eighth year of his age. 

His prize poem delivered at Oxford, June 18, 1828, on 
" Richard Coeur de Lion," was published in 1828, and the 
following year his English prize essay on " Tlie Influence 
of the Roman Conquest u]3on Literature and the Arts at 
Rome." His "Introductory Lecture" at King's College 
was published in 1831, and in 1832 his " Selections from 
the Choice Poetry of the Greek Dramatic Writers, trans- 
lated into English Verse." 

His hymns " were all dictated to his wife during the last 
few weeks of his life, and were composed just at the period 
of the day (the afternoon) when he most felt the oi3pression 
of his illness — all his brighter morning hours being given 
to pupils up to the very day of his death." They are not 
unworthy of the pen of John Keble, to whom several of 
them have been erroneously ascribed. 



HARRIET AUBER. 

1773-1862. 

It^ 1829 " The Spirit of the Psalms ; or, a Compressed 
Version of Select Portions of the Psalms of David " was 
published at London anonymously. Several of these 
Psalms were transferred to the " Church Psalmody," Bos- 
ton, 1831, and other collections, where they were credited 
to the " Spirit of the Psalms." In 1834 Mr. Lyte's book ap- 
peared, also entitled " The Spirit of the Psalms." Led sim- 
ply by the title, and not aware that the two books were 



24 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

entirely different, or that there were two books of the same 
name, subsequent compilers credited these hymns to Rev. 
Henry Frances Lyte. 

The earlier work was the production of Miss Harriet Au- 
ber. She was the daughter of James Auber, of Hackney, 
and was born October 4, 1773. The family was of French 
Protestant extraction, and, doubtless, of the same lineage 
with the eminent musical composer, Daniel Frangois Esprit 
Auber [1784-1871]. In a quiet and secluded home — first at 
Broxbourne, and then at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, with 
her worthy sisters, and latterly with a greatly endeared 
friend. Miss Mary Jane McKenzie, a literary lady, — she 
spent the most of her days on earth. With a fine liter 
ary taste, she occupied much of her time in poetic compo- 
sition — the most of which remains unpublished. During 
a long and useful life she greatly endeared herself to a 
large circle of relatives and friends. She went down to the 
''grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in 
his season," dying in great peace January 20, 1862, in 
the eighty-ninth year of her age, at her residence in Hod- 
desdon. 

The only marked incident of her quiet life was the pub- 
lication in her fifty-sixth year of her book already noticed. 
It contains a few selections from well-known authors, to 
some of which the names are attached ; the larger part of 
the pieces, however, are from her own pen. 

In one of her hymns she thus speaks of the Holy Spirit : 

' ' He came in semblance of a dove, 
With sheltering wings outspread, 
The holy balm of peace and love 
On eai'th to shed. 

" He came sweet influence to impart — 
A gracious, willing guest — 
Where he can fuid one humble heart 
Wherehi to rest. 

" And his that gentle voice we hear 
Soft as the breath of even ; 



JOHN AUSTIN. 

That checks each thought, that calms each fear, 
And speaks of heaven. 

And eveiy vu'tue we possess, 

And every conquest won, 
And every thought of holmess 

Are his alone." 



JOHIS' AUSTIN. 

1613-1669. 

John" ArsTiisr was of ISTorfolkshire, England. Bom at 
Walpole in 1613, lie was fitted for college at Sleeford, and, 
in 1631, was admitted a pensioner of St. Jolin's College, 
Cambridge. Here lie continued to reside until 1640, at 
which time or somewhat earlier he became a Roman Cath- 
olic. Leaving the university in consequence, he repaired to 
London and pursued the study of law at Lincoln's Inn. 
The times were turbulent, especially for Papists, making 
it difficult for him to practice law successfully. For a time 
he was emj^loyed as tutor in the house of a Mr. Fowler, of 
Staffordshire. 

Having succeeded by the death of a relative to a consid- 
erable estate, he returned in 16.50 to London, and estab- 
lished himself as a private gentleman in Bow St., Covent 
Garden, Dodd, in his " Church History," says : " Mr. 
Austin was a gentleman of singular parts and accomplish- 
ments, and so great a master of the English tongue, that 
his style continues [1742] to be a pattern for politeness. 
His time was wholly spent in books and learned conversa- 
tion ; having the advantage of several ingenious persons' 
familiarity, who made a kind of junto in the way of learn- 
ing, .... all men of great parts and erudition, who were 
assistants to one another in their writings." 

He wrote much under an assumed name and at times in 
a false guise. The first part of his " Christian Moderator ; 



26 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

or, Persecution for Religion condemned by the Light of 
Nature, Law of God, Evidence of our own Principles" 
appeared as the worlv of " William Birchley," an " Inde- 
pendent," in 1651 ; the second part followed in 1652, and 
a third part in 1653. Under the same pseudonyme he pub- 
lished in 1651 " The Oath of Abjuration Arraigned." " Re- 
flections upon the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance " was 
printed in 1661, "Booker Rebuked" in 1665, and, in 1668, 
" Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices ; containing Ex- 
ercises for Every Day in the Week and Every Holiday in the 
Year. " A second edition of this work was published in 1672 
and a third in 1675. He was the author also of "A Letter 
from a Cavalier in Yorkshire to a Friend, written during the 
Civil War," also of " A Punctual Answer to Dr. John Tillot- 
son's Book called ' The Rule of Faith,' " " The Four Gos- 
pels in One," and several anonymous pamphlets against the 
Assembly of Divines at AVestminster. 

He died at his house in Bow St., Covent Garden, in the 
summer of 1669 ; and, according to Anthony Wood, " was 
buried in the church of St. Paul there." The editor of 
one of the issues of his " Devotions " says : " He sweetened 
a tedious sickness by a perjDetual exercise of Divine love, 
and welcomed his approaching dissolution with incredible 
transports of joy." "He gave up the ghost with these re- 
markable words : ' Now, heartily for heaven, through Je- 
sus Christ.'" 

His "Devotions," etc., contain forty- three hymns, some 
of them of great excellence. 

A beautiful specimen of his style and spirit is given in a 
part of one of his hymns as follows : 

" My God! had I my breath from thee — 
This power to speak and sing ? 
And shall my voice, and shall my song, 
Praise any but their King ? 

" My God! had I my soul from thee — 
This power to judge and choose ? 
And shall my brain, and shaU my \\dll, 
Their best to thee refuse ? 



THOMAS WILLIAM B. AVELING. 37 

" Alas ! not this alone, or that, 
Hast thou bestowed on me ; 
But aU I have, and aU I hope, 
I have and hope from thee. 

" And more I have, and more I hope 
Than I can speak or think, — 
Thy blessings first refresh, then fill, 
Then overflow the brink." 



THOMAS WILLIAM B. AVELING. 

1815 . 

Me. Aveling became personally known to the American 
people as one of the delegates from Great Britain to the 
Conference of the Evangelical Alliance that met in New 
York, October, 1873. On October 11, 1838, he became the 
pastor of the Independent Chapel at Kingsland, a suburb 
of London. During the first two years of his pastorate he 
was the colleague of the venerable John Campbell [1766- 
1840], the noted African traveller. 

Mr. Aveling w^as born at Castletown, Isle of Man, May 11, 
1815. He obtained his early training in the school of Mr. 
James Smith at Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, at which place 
also, though born in the Church of England, he became a 
member of the Independent Church. In 1834, with, a view 
to the ministry, he entered Highbury College, London. 
He graduated with honor in June, 1838, and immediately 
afterward was called to Kingsland Chapel. 

In addition to his pulpit labors and pastoral duties, Mr. 
Aveling has been a frequent contributor to the religious 
press. In his youth he was addicted to versification. At 
the age of nineteen [1834] he published a small volume of 
poems. He edited for five years [1848-1853] the Jeioish 
Herald^ a religious monthly ; also for a considerable time 
the Missionary Soutienlr, to both of which he contributed 
frequently. 



28 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

useful miscellaneous volumes, and of a considerable num- 
ber of liymns— tlie greater part of whicli were written on 
the occasion of the several anniversaries of his Sunday- 
School, or in connection with his annual sermons to the 
young people of his charge. The hymn, 

"Hail ! thou God of Grace and Glory," 

was written for the jubilee of his church, June 16, 1844. 
Several of his hjanns have appeared in the British " Sunday- 
School Union Hymn-Book," in the London E-Gangelical 
Magazine, and the Sunday at Home. The stanzas that 
follow, taken from a hymn published in the Evangelical 
Magazine, are a fair specimen of his style : 

" On, toward Zion, on ! 

Glory awaits you there ;— 
' Crowns for the victor's brow. 
Robes that the conquerors wear, 
Thrones for the sons of might, 

Harps for the sons of song. 
Welcomes from Heaven's own King, 
Greetings from Heaven's bi'ight throng. 

" Be fearless in the fight. 

Look 'round you ; myi'iads stand 
Enrobed m glorious light — 

Earth's star-crowned victor band. 
They point you to the prize 

By true hearts surely won : 
They urge you to advance — 

On to the field, then, on 1 " 



LEONARD BACOiST. 

1802-1881. 

The Rev, Dr. Bacon was the son of a missionary, the 
Rev. David Bacon, who, in 1800, was appointed by the 
Missionary Society of Connecticut to labor among the In- 



LEONARD BACON. 29 

dians on the south and west of Lake Erie. In order to 
learn the language of the savages Mr. Bacon and his young 
wife located themselves at Detroit, then a frontier settle- 
ment, where their son Leonard was born February 19, 
1802. The father left the service of the Missionary Soci- 
ety in 1805, and subsequently resided in Hudson and Tall- 
madge, Ohio, of which latter place he was the first settler. 
He died in 1817, leaving three sons and four daughters. 

In 1812 Leonard was sent to reside with an uncle at Hart- 
ford, Conn., where he was fitted for college. He entered 
the Sophomore Class of Yale College in 1817, and though 
with one exception the youngest of his class, he ranked 
high among his fellows as a scholar and writer. He grad- 
uated in 1820 and entered the Theological Seminary of An- 
dover, Mass. , the same year. He was ordained at Wind- 
sor, Conn., to the work of an evangelist, September 28, 1824, 
and the next Sabbath began to preach as a candidate for 
settlement in the Centre Church, New Haven. A call was 
extended to him, and he was installed as the successor of 
the Eev. Nathaniel W. Taylor, D.D., March 9, 1825, a 
youth of only twenty-three years. This most influential 
position he occupied for forty years with eminent ability 
and marked efficiency. In 1866 he was appointed Acting 
Professor of Eevealed Theology and Lecturer on Church 
Polity and American Church History in the Theological 
Department of Yale College. The latter position he con- 
tinued to fill till his death, Dec. 24, 1881. 

Dr. Bacon was one of the most prolific writers of his day. 
The leading article of the March number of Tlie Christian 
Spectator (a New Haven monthly) for 1822, " On the Pecu- 
liar Characteristics of the Benevolent Efforts of our Age," 
was from his pen. From that date he was almost con- 
stantly before the public. Every subsequent volume of 
the monthly, and every volume of the quarterly Christian 
Spectator, as well as of The New-Englander, contained 
some article (one or more) from his pen. He was also for 
some years one of the editors of the New York Independ- 
ent. He was the author of a large number of essays, ser- 



30 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

mons, and lectures in pamphlet form. Not content with 
this wonderful fecundity, he found time also for the pub- 
lication of several volumes, many of them requiring a large 
amount of research and care in their preparation. 

In 1833 he compiled " A Supplement to Dwight's Psalms 
and Hymns." The hymn beginning, 

" Wake the song of jubilee," 

is found in this compilation. 

" Hail ! tranquil hour of closing day," 

is from the "Psalms and Hymns for Christian Use and 
Worship, prepared and set forth by the General Associa- 
tion of Connecticut " (1846), of which he was one of the 
supervising editors. To this collection he contributed 
eight other hymns, three of which had also appeared in 
1833. The following stanzas are from one of his hymns 
on " The Missionary's Death " : 

" Weep not for the saint that ascends 
To partake of the joys of the sky; 
Weep not for the seraph that bends 
With the worshiping choi-us on high ; 

" Weep not for the sphit now crowned 
With the garland to martyi^lom given ; 
Oh ! weep not for him; he has found 
His reward and his refuge in heaven. 

" But weep for their sorrows, who stand 
And lament o'er the dead by his grave, - 
Who sigh when they muse on the land 
Of their home, far away o'er the wave ;— 

" And weep for the nations that dwell. 

Where the light of the truth never shone, 
Where anthems of praise never swell. 
And the love of the Lamb is imknown." 



SIE HENRY WILLIAMS BAKER, BART. 31 

SIR HENRY WILLIAMS BAKER, BART. 

1821-1877. 

The volume entitled " Hymns, Ancient and Modern, for 
Use in the Services of the Church," has had an unprece- 
dented popularity. No other compilation can compare 
with it in the rapidity and extent of its circulation. It 
appeared in 1881 with 273 hymns, and in 1868 with an ap- 
pendix containing 113 additional hymns. Fourteen " Sup- 
plementary Hymns " have since been added, making the 
whole number 400. It has been published in a great vari- 
ety of forms and sizes, with and without tunes, both in 
England and America. It is claimed that "nearly five 
million copies have been sold." Of this Hymnal the Rev. 
Sir Henry Williams Baker,'Bart., was " one of the editors-in- 
chief." 

He was the son of Rear- Admiral Sir Henry Lorraine Ba- 
ker, whose father. Sir Robert Baker, the youngest son of 
John Baker, M.D., of Richmond, Surrey, was created by 
George III., April 30, 1796, a baronet. The family seat is 
Upper Dunstable House, Richmond, on the Surrey side of 
the Thames. Sir Henry was the third baronet, and was born 
at London May 27, 1821. His mother was a daughter of 
William Williams, Esq., from whom he derived his second 
name. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
and took his degree of B.A. in 1844. Having been de- 
signed for the Church, he was the same year ordained 
deacon, and December 20, 1846, he was ordained priest by 
the Bishop of Rochester at Westminster. He was pre- 
ferred in 1851 to the vicarage of Monkland ; succeeded to 
the baronetcy in 1859 ; and died, February 11, 1877. 

Sir Henry distinguished himself principally in the line 
of hymnology. Some of his hymns were written as early 
as 1852. To "Hymns, Ancient and Modern," he con- 
tributed twelve original hymns and at least ten transla- 
tions. He developed not only peculiar facility in ver- 



32 THE POETS OF THE CHUHCH. 

sification, but remarkable skill in adapting liis compilation 
to the prevailing tastes of the Church of England. His 
advanced churchmanship is everywhere apparent, espe- 
cially in his hymn on Baptism : 

' ' 'Tis done ; that new and heavenly bii'th 
Which re-creates the sons of earth, 
And cleanses from the guilt of sin 
The souls whom Jesus died to wui." 

Of his translations, four are of permanent value : 
" On this day, the first of days," etc., 

is a translation of 

" Die parente temporum," etc., 

from the Le Mans Breviary. 

" Blessed Trinity! from mortal sight," etc., 

is a successful version of 

" O luce, quas tua lates," etc., 

a hymn in the Paris Breviary, credited to Santolius Mag- 
lorianus. Another Latin hymn by the same author, 

" Prome vocem, mens canoram," etc., 

was versified by Chandler and reconstructed by Sir Henry 
in the form now so extensively in use, 

" Now, my soul! thy voice upraising," etc. 

" Jesus! grant me this, I pray," etc., 

is a version of a Latin hymn of four stanzas, 

" Dignare me, O Jesu! rogo te," etc., 

taken from one of the later French missals, and of uncer- 
tain origin. 
Among the earliest of his poetical essays is the hymn, 

"Oh ! what, if we are Christ's," etc. 



SIE HENEY WILLIAMS BAKER, BART. 33 

It was written in 1852, and celebrates the faith of the mar- 
tyrs. 

" Oh, praise our God to-day," etc., 

" There is a blessed home," etc., 

were written in 1852. 

Sir Henry was also the author of " Daily Prayers, for the 
Use of those who have to Work Hard," a "Daily Text- 
Book," also for hard workers, and a few short tracts. His 
version of the Twenty- third Psalm is subjoined : 

" The King of love my Shepherd is, 
Whose goodness f aileth never ; 
I nothing lack if I am his 
And he is mine forever. 

" Where streams of living water flow 
My ransomed soul he leadeth, 
And, where the verdant pastures grow, 
With food celestial feedeth. 

" Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, 
But yet in love he sought me. 
And on his shoulder gently laid, 
And home, rejoicing, brought me. 

" In death's dark vale I fear no ill 
With thee, dear Lord, beside me ; 
Thy rod and staff my comfort still, 
Thy cross before to guide me. 

" Thou spread'st a table in my sight, 
Thy unction grace bestoweth. 
And, oh ! what transport of delight 
From thy pure chalice fioweth. 

" And so through all the length of days 
Thy goodness f aileth never ; 
Good Shepherd ! may I sing thy praise 
Within thy house forever." 



34 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

JOHN BAKEWELL. 

1721-1819. 

Mr. John Bake well, a native of Brailsford, Derby sMre, 
England, was born in 1721, and we are told it was in 1739, 
chiefly by the reading of Boston's " Fourfold State," that 
he was brought from darkness into light. Four years af- 
terward (1744) he ventured to preach the Gospel to his own 
neighbors, with much obloquy, and yet with marked suc- 
cess. Shortly after, he removed to London, where he soon 
became acquainted with the Messrs. Wesley, was received 
into their Connection, and recognized as a local preacher. 
He occupied himself principally as a teacher, and for many 
years was the principal of Greenwich Royal Park Acad- 
emy. In his humble way he delighted to i^reach the Gos- 
pel, especially to the poor and outcast. He exercised his 
ministry successively in Derbyshire, in London, in Bed- 
ford, in Kent, and in Staffordshire. In 1815 he removed 
from Greenwich to Lewisham, a neighboring village, where, 
at the age of ninety-eight years, he died March 18, 1819, in 
great peace and in the blissful assurance of a happy immor- 
tality. Those who knew him best esteemed him as a man 
of eminent piety and humility. 

Very little is known of his writings. Besides a few 
hymns of inferior merit, and a letter that appeared in the 
July number of the Metliodist Magazine for 1816, nothing 
has survived but the very popular h^nun, 

' ' Hail ! thou once despised Jesus, " etc. 

It has had a very wide circulation. The original contains 
five doable stanzas, the last of which seldom appears and is 
here supplied : 

" Soon we shall, with those in glory, 
His transcendent grace relate ; 
Gladly sing tli* amazing story 
Of his dying love so gi eat. 



OHARITIE LEES [SMITH] BANCEOFT. 35 

In that blessed contemplation 

We forevermore shall dwell, 
Cro^Yned with bliss and consolation, 

Such as none below can tell." 



CHARITIE LEES [SMITH] BA]S"CROFT. 
1841 . 

Mrs. Bancroft is a native of Ireland. Her father, the 
Rev. Sidney Smith, J).T>., Rector of Drnmragh, County 
Tyrone, Ireland, is not to be confounded with the gifted 
essajdst and humorist, the Prebend of St. Paul, London. 
She was born June 21, 1841, at Bloomfield, Merrion, County 
Dublin. Her talent for poetic comiDOsition was developed 
at an early period of her life. She has written consider- 
ably for several serial publications and contributed very 
pleasing hymns to Ryle's "SiDiritual Songs," "Times of 
Refreshing," and Rogers' "Lyra Britannica" (1866). 

The following stanzas are from a hymn, on "Christ 
Mighty to Save," contributed in 1866 to "Lyra Britan- 
nica " : 

" The King of glory standeth 

Beside that heart of sin ; 
His mighty voice commandeth 

The raging waves within ; 
The floods of deepest anguish 

Roll backward at his will, 
As o'er the storm ariseth 

His mandate — ' Peace! be still.' 

" At times, with sudden glory. 

He speaks, and all is done ! 
Without one stroke of battle 

The victory is won. 
While we, with joy beholding. 

Can scarce believe it true. 
That e'en our kingly Jesus 

Can form such hearts anew. 



THE POETS OF THE CHUEC 

" Oil ! Clii'ist, his love is mighty- 
Long suffering is his grace ! 

And glorious is the splendor 
That beameth from his far 

Our hearts up-leap in gladness 
When we behold that love, 

As we go singing onward 
To dwell with hun above." 



ANNA LiETITIA [AIKIN] BARBAULD. 
1743-1825. 

Mrs, Barbauld was the only daughter and eldest child 
of the Rev. John Aikin, LL.D,, the eldest son of John 
Aikin, a linen-draper of London. The family were from 
Kirkcudbright, Scotland. At an early age the son was sent 
(1723) from London to the Dissenting Academy at Kib- 
worth-Harconrt, Leicestershire, England. The Rev. John 
Jennings, who had founded the Academy, died the same 
year, and was succeeded by his i^upil, the Rev. Philip 
Doddridge. From Kib worth, Aikin went to the University 
of Aberdeen, where he completed his education, and whence 
in after life he received the honorary degree of LL.D. On 
his return to England he settled at Market-Harborough, 
Leicestershire. Miss Jane Jennings, the only daughter of 
his former teacher, became his wife. At the age of fifteen 
she had declined the hand of Doddridge. Her mother, 
Anna Lsetitia Wingate, was the granddaughter of Sir Ar- 
thur Annesley, the first Earl of Anglesey and Lord Privy 
Seal under Charles II. Mr. Aikin was speedily compelled, 
by an affection of the chest occasioned by a fall, to resign 
his charge. He then returned to Kibworth and revived 
the Academy, which he conducted with success for several 
years. 

Here Anna Lsetitia, his daughter, was born June 20, 1743, 



ANNA L^TITIA [AIKIN] BARBAULD. 37 

where also the first fourteen years of her life were spent. 
She was a precocious child, with a wonderful aptitude for 
literature. Her education was conducted by her father, 
" I have seen," she said at a later day, " a good deal of the 
education of boys, but in a girls' school I should be quite a 
novice. I never was at one myself. I have not even the 
advantage of sisters ; indeed, for the early part of my life, 
I conversed little with my own sex." 

Mr. Aikin in June, 1757, removed to Warrington-on-the- 
Mersey, and there, with Dr. John Taylor, of Norwich, and 
Mr. John Hiot, of Lancaster (all of them Arians), he estab- 
lished a theological school. Dr. Joseph Priestley, Dr. Will- 
iam Enfield, and Gilbert Wakefield subsequently were as- 
sociated with him as teachers. The place was famed for its 
literary society, of which Miss Aikin was regarded as one 
of the principal ornaments. She had been trained in the 
knowledge of the Latin and Greek classics, and in the ex- 
act sciences. Her personal attractions were remarkable. 
" Her person was slender, her complexion exquisitely fair 
with the bloom of perfect health, her features regular and 
elegant, and her dark blue eyes beamed with the light of 
wit and fancy." She had a host of admirers and suitors. 

Her poetic talent had been early develoiDed. Five of her 
hymns were contributed to Dr. Enfield's " Hymns for Pub- 
lic Worship," Warrington, 1772. A volume of her " Poems " 
was published in 1773, which ran through four editions in 
a year. At the close of the same year appeared " Miscella- 
neous Pieces in Prose by J. and A. L. Aikin," to which her 
brother John contributed the smaller part. 

She gave her hand the next year (1774) to Rochemont 
Barbauld, one of her father's pupils. He was of a French 
Protestant family, and his father had been chaplain at Cas- 
sel to the Elector of Hesse, son-in-law of George II. of Eng- 
land. Her niece, Lucy Aikin, says that " her attachment 
to Mr. Barbauld was the illusion of a romantic fancy," fos- 
tered, as was thought, by " the baneful influence of the ' Nou- 
velle Heloise,' Mr. B. impersonating St. Preux." She says 
further : " Had her true affections been early called forth 



38 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

by a more genial home atmospliere, she would never have 
allowed herself to be caught by crazy demonstrations of 
amorous rapture set oif with theatrical French manners." 
It was regarded by her best and truest friends as an " ill- 
starred union." Mr. Barbauld, though reputed a religious 
man, and numbered among the dissenting ministry, was 
every way her inferior. 

This gave the cynical Dr. Samuel Johnson occasion to say, 
" Too much is expected from precocity and too little per- 
formed. Miss Aikin was an instance of early cultivation ; 
but in what did it terminate ? In marrying a little Presby- 
terian parson who keeps an infant boarding-school, so that 
all her employment now is, 

' To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.' 

If I had bestowed such an education on a daughter, and 
had discovered that she thought of marrying such a, fel- 
low, I would have sent her to the Congress." 

The " infant boarding-school " was kept at the village of 
Palgrave, Suffolk, two miles from Diss, Norfolk. The dis- 
senting congregation of the latter place had given Mr. Bar- 
bauld a call, which he had accepted. At Palgrave, to which 
he had removed with his bride, he opened a boarding-school 
for boys, in which his wife assisted him. Denied the bless- 
ing of offspring, she adopted her brother's son Charles, al- 
most from his birth. For him and her more youthful pu- 
pils she wrote, and in 1778 published, her "Early Les- 
sons"; and in 1781 her "Hymns in Prose for Children." 
In 1775 she had published her "Devotional Pieces com- 
piled from the Psalms and the Book of Job, with Thoughts 
on the Devotional Taste and on Sects and Establishments." 

Tlie school was continued for eleven years with success, 
but it proved too exhausting for each of them. They bade 
adieu, therefore, to Palgrave in 1785, spent a year on the 
Continent and another in London, and then settled at 
Hampstead, beautifully situated as it then was in the 
country on the elevated ground to the northwest of Lon- 
don — Mr. Barbauld having accepted the pastoral charge of 



ANNA LJETITIA [AIKIN] BAEBAULD. 39 

the dissenting congregation there. In 1793 slie made a visit 
to Edinburgh and met with a hearty welcome from the lit- 
erary celebrities of that city. 

She now began to tal^e an active interest in the politics 
of the day. In 1790 she published "An Address to the 
Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts " ; 
in 1791, "A Poetical Epistle to Mr. Wilberforce on the 
Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade"; in 
1793, "Remarks on Mr. Gilbert Wakefield's Inquiry into 
the Expediency and Projiriety of Public or Social Wor- 
ship"; also, " Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation ; or, 
a Discourse for the Fast." She contributed fourteen arti- 
cles to "Evenings at Home," a work published by her 
brother, in six volumes (1792-1795), for the benelit of the 
young. In 1795 she contributed eleven hymns to Rees and 
Kij)pis' collection, five of which had appeared (1772) in the 
Warrington Collection of Hymns. 

Her brother, in 1798, had removed from London to Stoke- 
Newington, a pretty suburban village, a few miles to the 
northeast of London, where Dr. Watts had passed about 
forty years of his valuable life. She induced Mr. Barbauld, 
in 1802, to purchase a house close to her brother's, to which 
they soon after removed, and where she spent the remainder 
of her life. 

In 1804 she published a volume of selections from the 
Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and Freeliolder, with an ad- 
mirable Preliminary Essay ; also "The Correspondence of 
Richardson," in six volumes, with a Life of the Novelist, 
and an able Review of his Works. Many of her publica- 
tions were undertaken as a, refuge from domestic trouble. 
Her husband had, at an early period, developed a tendency 
to insanity, which, growing with his years, resulted in fre- 
quently-repeated fits of frenzy and madness. Her suffer- 
ings from this sad fact were terrible, yet borne without 
complaint, and wdth Christian resignation. In one of his 
paroxysms he rushed upon her with a knife, attempting to 
take her life. She then separated from him, and he was 
removed to London, where he was put in charge of a keeper. 



40 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

"When the latter was off his guard, March 11, 1808, he es- 
caped and drowned himself in the New Kiver. She wrote 
an affecting Dirge on the event. 

Her brother, in 1796, had become the literary editor of 
the MontMy Magazine^ and for ten years she occasionally 
contributed to its columns. She edited also an edition of 
"The British Novelists," which was published in 1810, 
with an Introductory Essay, and biographical and critical 
notices T)refixed to the works of each author. This was 
followed the next year by "The Female Speaker," a col- 
lection of prose and verse ; and by her longest and most 
beautiful Poem, entitled "Eighteen Hundred and Eleven," 
her latest separate publication. 

The last fourteen years of her life were passed in retire- 
ment, with occasional visits to a few literary friends. Even 
in her old age she "bore the remains of great personal 
beauty. She had a brilliant complexion, light hair, blue 
eyes, a small and elegant figure, and her manners were very 
agreeable." She continued to be the delight of an admir- 
ing circle of noble friends to the very last. Her only 
brother, John, died December 7, 1822. In her later days 
she was afflicted with asthma, which at length put an end 
to her life March 9, 1825, in her eighty-second year. 

In extreme old age she wrote a short poem on " Life," 
beginning with : 

" Life! I know not what tliou art, 
But know that thou and I must part." 

After her death and the publication of her "Works" by 
her niece, Miss Lucy Aikin, a copy of the book was given 
to Miss Wordsworth, the sister of the poet. This particu- 
lar poem was read to Wordsworth, and at his request re- 
peated, until he had learned it by heart. Tlien, as he paced 
his sitting-room at Eydal, Henry Crabb Robinson heard 
him mutter to himself, " I am not in the habit of grudging 
X»eople their good things, but I wish I had written those 
lines : 

' Life ! we've been long together, 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather ; 



JOEL BAELOW. 41 

'Tis hard to part when friends are dear ; 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 
Then steal away, give little warning, 

Choose thine own time ; 
Say not — Good-night ! — but in some brighter clime 

Bid me — Good-morning ! ' " 



JOEL BARLOW. 
1754-1812. 

The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts were reprinted in 
America as early as 1741. They were introduced gradually 
into the churches, and were extensively used at the period 
of " the Revolution." At the close of the war the altered 
political relations of the "States" necessitated a corre- 
sponding change in those portions of these lyiics which re- 
ferred to British authority. By "The General Association 
of Connecticut," at their Annual Meeting in June, 1785, " it 
was thought expedient that a number of the Psalms in Doc- 
tor Watts' version, which are locally appropriated, should 
be altered and a^^plied to the state of the Christian Churcli 
in general, and not to any particular country ; and, finding 
some attempts had been made to alter and apply those 
Psalms to America, or particular parts of America, tending 
to destroy that uniformity in the use of Psalmody so de- 
sirable in religious assemblies, they appointed the Rev. 
Messrs. Timothy Pitkin, John Smally, and Theodore Hins- 
dale, a committee to confer with and applj^ to Mr. Joel Bar- 
low, of Hartford, to make the proposed alterations." 

Mr. Barlow complied with the request, and the revised 
book appeared the next year (1786) with this title : " Doc- 
tor Watts's Imitation of the Psalms of David, Corrected and 
Enlarged, by Joel Barlow. To which is added A Collec- 
tion of Hymns ; The whole applied to the State of the 
Christian Church in General." In his Preface he says: 
" The author of these corrections has not only avoided all 



42 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

local applications, but has made some slighter corrections 
in point of elegance, where the rules of grammar, estab- 
lished since the time of Doctor Watts, have made it neces- 
sary. The Psalms considerably altered are the 21st, 60th, 
67th, 75th, 124th, 147th ; those omitted by Doctor Watts 
are the 28th, 43d, 52d, 54th, 59th, 64th, 70th, 79th, 88th, 
108th, 137th, 140th. The Hymns are selected chiefly from 
Doctor Watts ; some are entirely new." The hjnnns are 
seventy in number ; and with those that are not from his 
own pen, great liberties have been taken. Changes were 
made that gave great ofi'ence, and at length occasioned the 
later revision (1800) by Dr. Dwight, whose edition of Watts 
superseded Barlow's. 

As an illustration of the indignation felt and expressed 
at the liberties taken by Barlow, it is related, in Miss Caulk- 
ins' History of iSTorwich, Ct., that Oliver Arnold (a cousin 
of Benedict Arnold), being " in a bookseller's shop in JN'ew 
Haven," Ct., "was introduced to Joel Barlow," who pres- 
ently " asked for a specimen of his talent " as an impromptu 
rhymer ; " upon which the wandering poet immediately re- 
peated the following stanza : 

' You've proved yourself a sinful cre'tur ; 
You've murdered Watts, and spoilt the metre ; 
You've tried the word of God to alter, 
And for your paixis deserve a halter,' " 

Barlow was the son of Samuel Barlow and Esther Hull, 
being the youngest of eight children, and was born at 
Reading, Ct., March 24, 1754. In 1774 he entered Dart- 
mouth College, his father having died (Dec. 20, 1773, set. 
63), and left him property barely sufficient to defray the 
expenses of his education. His mother died August 28, 
1775, set. 54. Soon after he removed to New Haven, Ct., 
and entered Yale College, where he graduated in 1778 at 
the head of his class. The war of the Revolution was in 
progress, and his brothers were in camp. More than once, 
before he left college, he had joined them, and borne the 
brunt of battle. His poetic bent took form at his gradua- 



JOEL BARLOW. 43 

tion in a poem entitled " The Prospect of Peace," wMcli 
was publislied the same year. 

He now began the study of law, which, at the urgency of 
friends, who represented to him the great need of chaplains 
in the army, he relinquished for a brief course in theology. 
He was licensed to preach by a Congregational Association 
at New Haven, Ct., and received a commission as army 
chaplain in the Third and Fourth Massachusetts Brigades, 
in which capacity he served (1780-1783) to the end of the 
war. A part. of the time he was associated with his college 
friends and fellow poets, the Rev. Timothy D wight and 
Col. David Humphreys. The trio indulged themselves in 
poetic recreation, composing patriotic songs and more elab- 
orate poems. In the latter part of 1780, Barlow wrote and 
published an elegy in verse, in honor of his friend, the Hon. 
Titus Hosmer, of Middletown, Ct., and the next year an- 
other poem, delivered on the occasion of taking his Mas- 
ter's Degree. 

He married (January 26, 1781) Miss Ruth, a daughter of 
Michael Baldwin, the sister of the distinguished statesman, 
Hon. Abraham Baldwin, of New Haven, and having, at the 
close of the war, resumed the study of the law, he settled 
at Hartford, Ct., where he started a weekly gazette, called 
The American Mercury. He was admitted to the bar in 
1785. The next year he published his edition of Watts' 
Psalms, and in 1787 his first elaborate poem, " The Vision 
of Columbus." The gazette was now relinquished, and a 
bookstore started for the sale of his recent publications. 
He united with Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, John Trumbull, and 
Col. David Humi;)hreys in producing the "Anarchiad," a 
satirical poem. As agent of the " Scioto Land Company," 
he went to Europe, but, discovering the fraudulent char- 
acter of the scheme, he soon abandoned the agency. 

He remained abroad seventeen years, residing principally 
in Paris, and taking an active part, by voice and pen and 
personal effort, in the stirring events of that most exciting 
period. In 1791 he published at London his " Advice to 
the Privileged Orders," and in 1792 his poem called " The 



44 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Conspiracy of Kings." His humorous poem on "Tlie 
Hasty Pudding," published at New Haven in 1798, was 
written in January, 1793, at Chambery, in Savoy. As Con- 
sul of the United States at Algiers in Africa he concluded 
(1795) treaties with the Barbary States and secured the re- 
lease of more than one hundred captives. Returning in 
1797 to Paris, he enriched himself by successful trade, pur- 
chased an elegant mansion, and for several years exercised 
a sumx)tuous hospitality. 

On his return to America in 1805 he purchased a resi- 
dence at Georgetown, D. C, which he named " Kalorama." 
He found time at length to complete his great work, " The 
Columbiad," and to i3ublish it in costly style (1807) at Phila- 
delphia. He had made some preparations for composing 
a History of the United States, when he was appointed by 
President Madison (1810) to succeed Gen. John Annstrong 
as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to France. 
Again he took up his abode at Paris and entered into nego- 
tiations with Napoleon on behalf of the United States Gov- 
ernment. While the latter was prosecuting his Russian 
campaign, he sent for Barlow to meet him in conference at 
Wilna, in Poland. His exposures and fatigues on the 
journey induced a violent inflammation of the lungs, re- 
sulting, December 24, 1812, in his death at Zarnawicka, a 
small village twenty miles north of Cracow, Poland. Dis- 
tinguished honors, both in France and America, were paid 
to his memory. 

His version of the 127th Psalm is regarded as one of the 
very best. It is as follows : 

" Along the banks where Babel's current flows, 

Our captive bands in deep despondence strayed ; 
While Zion's fall in sad remembrance rose, 

Her friends, her children, mingled with the dead, 

" Tlie tuneless harp that once with joy we strimg. 

When praise employed and mii'th inspired the lay, 
In mournful silence on the willows hung. 
And growing grief prolonged the tedious day. 



HENKY BATEMAN. 45 

The barb'rous tyrants, to increase the woe, 
With taunting smiles a song of Zion claim ; 

Bid sacred praise in strains melodious flow, 
While they blaspheme the great Jehovah's name. 

But how, in heathen chains and lands unknown, 

Shall Israel's bands a song of Zion raise ? 
O hapless Salem ! God's terrestrial throne, 

Thou land of glory, sacred mount of praise !— 

If e'er my mera'ry lose thy lovely name, 

If my cold heart neglect my kindred race. 
Let dire destruction seize this guilty frame, 

My hand shall perish and my voice shall cease. 

Yet shall the Lord, who hears when Zion calls, 

O'ertake her foes with terror and dismay ; 
His arm avenge her desolated walls. 

And raise her children to eternal day." 



HENRY BATEMAN. 

Me. Batemaist is a citizen of London. Born about the 
beginning of the century, he has spent a long life in hon- 
orable and successful business. He is a brother of the 
Rev. Josiah Bateman, a rector in Southend, Essex, who, in 
1833, accompanied Bishop Daniel Wilson as his chaplain 
to India, became his son-in-law, and, in 1860, published his 
Memoirs in two volumes. The Bishop was, also, their ma- 
ternal uncle. Their father was an eminent citizen of the 
metropolis, and for many years a manager of George 
Whitefield's Tabernacle in Moorfields. Henry Bateman, 
by inheritance and conviction, is a conscientious and ar- 
dent-minded dissenter. The late Rev. Dr. Thomas Binney, 
Independent, of London, was his brother-in-law, as also is 
the Rev. Josiah Viney, of the London Independents, High- 
gate, South Grove. 

Diligent as Mr. Bateman has ever been in business, he 



46 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

has always been ready for effective service in the promo- 
tion of religious and philanthropic objects. lie was for- 
merly the Secretary of the Board of Newport Pagnell Col- 
lege, presided over by his uncle. He has since served on 
the committees of Cheshunt and New Colleges. He has, 
also, been a director of the Religious Tract Society and 
of the London Missionary Society ; also a member of the 
Home Missionary Committee, and identified from the be- 
ginning with the Society for the Abolition of Church 
Rates. Formerly he held the office of deacon in the Holy- 
well ISIount Chapel, under the pastorate of Rev. Edward 
Mannering, Shoreditch ; and latterly, since his removal to 
Upper Clapton, a deacon in the Clapton church, under the 
care of the Rev. Henry John Gamble. 

With all this Mr. Bateman has found time for literary 
pursuits, and the cultivation of the poetic art, in which he 
has abundantly show^n his x)roficiency. In 1858, after a 
tour on the Continent, he published " Belgium, and Up and 
Down on the Rhine"; a book of travels in verse, evincing 
" a poet's eye, a good man's heart, and great facility and 
directness in expression." This was followed, the same 
year, by his " Sunday Sunshine : Hymns and Poems for 
the Young." Both of these publications were received 
with much favor. In 1862 he sent forth his " Home Mus- 
ings : Metrical Lay Sermons," and a few months later his 
"Heart Melodies: Three Hundred and Sixty-five New 
Hymns and Psalms for Public Worship or Domestic 
Use." His latest publication is a beautiful volume, issued 
in 1869, entitled " Fret Not, and other Poems ; including 
Hymns, with Music." 

This charming book is thus introduced by the venerable 
author : " If it be admitted that to induce a Blade of Grass 
to grow where never one grew before is to be a World- 
Benefactor, let me claim for the present volume the aim, 
at least, to plant some green thoughts in hearts that are 
arid or sad";— "a book which, in its varied parts, may, I 
hope, prove helpful and encouraging to Fellow-Travellers 
on Life's sometimes Dark and often Weary Way." The 



HENRY BATEMAN. 47 

first poem directs the fretful soul to " God's Greatness and 
Goodness in The Without," to "God's Kindness and 
Teaching in The Within," to " God's Wisdom and Just- 
ness in His Providence," and to " God's Mercy in the Gos- 
pel of the Lord Jesus Christ." The following stanzas are 
from the latter part of this poem : 

" But, child of God! when he has filled thy heai't 
With his sweet love, and taught thee how to live, 

And thou, in Christ, hast chosen the good part. 
The hetter part his Spirit waits to give. 

All shall be well ! thy life and all thy ways, 

A thaukfiil tribute of unceasing praise. 

" Happy to live a Life so true and right, 

So blessed and tranquil, that to thy dear Home 
A sense of pleasant and suffusive light 

From every word and act of thine shall come, 
And all may see how, in thy soul, have met 
God's grace, and hope of life far better yet. 

" O blessed Life! O sweet, fair home and rest! 

Unruffled in its purity of joy : 
Home ! with enfranchised spirits ever blessed ; 

God's praise the happy heart's serene employ ! 
Sin and Time's Fret, and all its troubles o'er ; 
Heaven's perfect peace — Light ! Light for Evermore ! " 

Of his hymn, 

" Jesus! Jesus! come and save us," 

he says that it was suggested by a rema,rkably fervent and 
touching prayer that he heard offered " Wednesday, Sep- 
tember 7, 1862," in a Noon-day Prayer-meeting held in 
Crosby Hall, London, in which, with inimitable pathos of 
tone and manner, the suppliant frequently uttered the 
words : " O Jesus ! Jesus ! " beseeching him " to come, and 
help, and bless." 



48 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

WILLIAM HILEY BRAGGE-BATHURST. 

1796-1877. 

Mr. Batiiuest was a lineal descendant of Sir Benjamin 
Bathnrst, Governor in 1688-9 of the Royal African and 
East India Companies. Allen, the eldest son of Sir Ben- 
jamin, was, in 1711, created Baron, and in 1771, Earl, of 
Batliurst. Anne, daughter of the Earl's brother, Benja- 
min, was married to Charles Bragge, Esq., of Cleve Hill, 
Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire. Her son, the Right Hon. 
Charles Bragge, M. P. , by the decease of his uncles, Thomas 
and Poole, without heirs, came, in 1804, into possession of 
the large Sydney estates, near the Severn, Gloucestershire, 
and, by sign-manual, took the name of Bragge-Bathurst. 
He married, in 1788, Charlotte, the daughter of Anthony 
Addington, M.D., and Mary Hiley. Their second son, 
William Hiley, was born at Cleve Hill, the seat of the 
Bragge family, near Bristol, August 28, 1796, and was 
trained for the Church. 

His preparatory course was pursued at Winchester 
school ; his collegiate course at Christ Church, Oxford. 
He graduated in 1818. The following year he was or- 
dained deacon by the Bishop of Oxford, and in 1820 priest 
by Dr. Howley, then Bishop of London, afterward Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. In September, 1820, he was pre- 
sented by his kinsman Henry, Third Earl of Bathurst, to 
the Rectory of Barwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire. Faithfully 
devoting himself to the spiritual welfare of his parishion- 
ers, he greatly endeared himself to them all by his eminent 
piety, his great simi^licity of character, his tender love, and 
his abundant generosity. At the expiration of thirty-two 
years, owing to conscientious scruples in relation to parts 
of the Baptismal and Burial services of the Church, he re- 
signed (1852) his living and retired to private life. He 
found a congenial home at Darleydale, near Matlock, Der- 
byshire, where for eleven years he gave himself princii)ally 



WILLIAM HILEY BRAGGE-BATHURST. 49 

to literary pursuits. By the decease of his elder brother 
Charles in May, 1863, without heirs, he came into posses- 
sion of his father's estate, and soon after removed to Lyd- 
ney Park, where he died, November 25, 1877. 

In the early years of his ministry Mr. Bathnrst improved 
his leisure time by composing hymns and versifying a large 
portion of the Psalms. The result was given to the public 
(1830) in a small volume entitled " Psalms and Hymns for 
Public and Private Use." Of the one hundred and fifty 
Psalms, all but eighteen, and of the Hymns, the whole 
number (two hundred and six) are from his own pen. At 
the expiration of nearly twenty years more (1849) he pub- 
lished a metrical version of " The Georgics of Virgil," the 
fruit of his leisure hours and of his rural experience, also 
a volume of " Metrical Musings ; or. Thoughts on Sacred 
Subjects in Verse." 

A pleasing specimen, both of his style and of his spirit, 
appears in the following hymn, on " Christ in You, the 
Hope of Glory"; 

" O Saviour! may we never rest 
Till Thou art formed within ; 
Till Thou hast calmed our troubled breast 
And crushed the power of sin. 

" Oh! may we gaze upon Thy cross, 
Until the wondrous sight 
Makes eai'thly treasures seem but di*oss 
And earthly sorrows light : 

" Until, released from carnal ties, 
Our spirit upward springs, 
And sees true peace above the skies. 
True joy in heavenly things. 

" There, as we gaze, may we become 
United, Lord ! to Thee ; 
And, in a fairer, happier home, 
Thy perfect beauty see." 

4 



50 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

RICHARD BAXTER. 

1615-1691. 

Few men in any age have used the pen more constantly 
and to better purpose than Richard Baxter. But he was 
not a poet. He seklom courted the Muses. It was not in 
his vein. He could not give the time and labor requisite 
for the skilful and gi'aceful elaboration of his thoughts in 
verse. 

And yet he was passionately fond of sacred song. 
" For myself," he says, " I confess that harmony and mel- 
ody are the pleasure and elevation of my soul. I have 
made a psalm of praise in the holy assembly the chief de- 
lightful exercise of my religion and my life. " Genius and 
imagination characterized much of what he wrote. But he 
was too earnest, too practical, too intent on his great work 
of winning souls to put his glowing thoughts in mellifluous 
verse. 

He published, in 1681, a small volume entitled "Poetical 
Fragments : Heart Employment with God and Itself. 
The concordant discord of a broken, healed heart, sor- 
rowing, rejoicing, fearing, hoping, living, dying." Two 
years later he published " Additions to the Poetical Frag- 
ments, written for himself, and communicated to such as 
are more for serious verse than smooth." After the same 
fashion he versified "The Book of Psalms," which was 
given to the public (1692), after his decease, by his friend 
and biographer, Matthew Sylvester, with the title, " Para- 
phrase of the Psalms of Da^4d, with other Hymns." 

Of his " Poetical Fragments," Baxter thus writes : " All 
that I have to say for these ' Fragments ' is — 1. That being 
fitted to women and vulgar wits, which are the far greatest 
number, they may be useful to such, though contemptible 
to those of higher elevation and expectation. 2. And be- 
ing suited to afflicted, sick, dying, troubled, sad, and doubt- 



EICHAED BAXTER. ^^ 

ing persons, the number of sucli is so great in these calam- 
itous times as may render them useful to more than 1 de- 
sire. 3. And if my present grief [the death of his vafe] 
may but excuse the publication, he that needeth them not 
may let them alone." 

The renowned author of the " Call to the Unconverted " 
is too well known and his life was too full of incident to 
make it necessary to give here more than the merest out- 
line of his personal history. He was born, of godly par- 
ents, ]N"ovember 12, 1615, at the village of Rowton, in Shrop- 
shire, eight miles west of Shrewsbury, England, a village 
that has no other distinction. At the age of fifteen he was 
hopefully converted. He entered on public life, as a school- 
master, first at Wroxeter, and then at Dudley, Worcester- 
shire. In 1638 he was ordained to the ministry by Bishop 
Thornborough, at Worcester. He accepted (1639) an invi- 
tation from the church of Bridgenorth, the second town in 
Shropshire, to become their pastor. In 1641 he removed 
to Kidderminster, in the same county. After the breaking 
out of the civil war he retired, first to Gloucester then to 
Coventry. In 1642 he became the chaplain of Col. Whal- 
ley's regiment. Severe illness at length drove him from 
the army, and he found a home in the house of Sir Thomas 
Rous at Rous Leuch, Worcestershire. Here he wrote his 
" Saints' Everlasting Rest " — the abridgment of which has 
immortalized his name. He returned to Kidderminster in 
1646 and entered on the great work of his life. 

On the restoration of Charles II. (1660) he was appointed 
one of the King's chaplains, was offered and declined a 
Bishopric, and, on the passage of the noted "Act of Uni- 
formity " (1662), became a Non- conformist. Ejected from 
his pastoral charge, he passed the remaining period of his 
life in much disquiet and tribulation (2 Cor. xi. 26, 27), 
employing his brief intervals of repose in the preparation 
and publication of controversial and practical tracts and 
larger treatises. He died in great peace, at London, De- 
cember 8, 1691. 

The products of his pen, according to Calamy, his biog- 



52 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

rajiher, amount to " four folios, fifty-eight quartos (besides 
single sermons), forty-six octavos, and twenty-nine duode- 
cimos, with occasional sheets and prefaces to other men' s 
books." In his pastoral work he has probably never been 
excelled. Wlien he began his ministry at Kidderminster 
" there was scarcely a house in a street where there was 
family worship ; when he left it, there was scarcely a fam- 
ily in the side of a street where it was not ; and whoever 
walked through the town on the Lord's Day evening, heard 
everywhere the delightful sound of reading the Scriptures 
and prayer and praise." 
His well-known hymn, 

" My whole, though broken heart, O Lord! 
From henceforth shall be thine," 

is a song of tribulation ; an utterance of hope in a sea of 
trouble. 

Several of the hymns attached to his "Poetical Frag- 
ments " were written so as to be sung to either L. M. or C. 
M. tunes, as in the following specimen of his style : 

" Blest is the man to whom the Lord 
Imputes not guilt of [aw?/] sin, 
Nor calls him to a strict account 
What he hath [thought and] done and been. 

*' Conscience permits us not to think 
That any [of us] faultless are; 
Who then can rigorous justice bear 
At God's most righteous [dreadful] bar ? 

" But blessed be our Eedeemer's grace, 
Who before [rigorous] justice stood ; 
Did pay our debt, our guilt deface, 
And washed us in his [precious] blood." 



BENJAMIN BEDDOME. 53 

BENJAMIN BEDDOME. 

1717-1795. 

Mr. Beddome was a Baptist minister, as was, also, liis 
father, the Rev. Jolm Beddome (1674-1757). In liis early 
ministry the father was settled at Horselyden, Southwark, 
and then at Henly-in-Arden, a market-town, nine miles 
west of Warwick, England. There Benjamin was born, 
January 23, 1717. Thence the family removed in 1724 to 
Bristol, the father having accepted the pastorate of the 
Pithay church in that town. 

After a suitable education the son was apprenticed to a 
surgeon apothecary. He was seriously impressed by a ser- 
mon on Luke xv. 7, preached August 7, 1737, in his father's 
church, by Mr. Ware, of Chesham. At the close of his ap- 
prenticeship, having become a subject of divine grace, he 
determined to enter the ministry, and became a student in 
Bristol College, under the tuition of the Rev. Bernard Fos- 
kett. Thence he repaired to London, and put himself un- 
der the instructions of the learned Rev. John Eames, of the 
Independent Academy, Tenter Alley, Moorfields. He was 
baptized, in 1739, by the Rev. Samuel Wilson, of the Little 
Prescot Street Church, Goodman's Fields, and was licensed 
to preach, February, 1740, by the church of the Rev. Joseph 
Stennett. At the expiration of three and a half years he 
was ordained (September 23, 1743) the pastor of the Baptist 
church, in the village of Bourton-on-the- Water, in Glouces- 
tershire. He married, in 1749, Elizabeth Boswell, of Bour- 
ton. Though urged to become his father's colleague at 
Bristol, and afterward to become the pastor of the largest 
Baptist church in London (the one where he was baptized), 
he declined every invitation from abroad, devoting himself 
to the interests of his country charge, with perfect content- 
ment, and with the happiest results. One of his sons died 
in 1765, another in 1778, and a third in 1784. At length, 
after a most faithful ministry of fifty-two years (eighteen 
with a colleague), he departed this life September 3, 1795. 



54 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Witli the exception of the Circular Letter of fhe Midland 
Association for 1765, liis only publication (1752) was "A 
Scriptural Exposition on tlie Baptist Catecliism, by way of 
Question and Answer." Ten years after Ms decease two 
volumes of his seraions were published (1805), each entitled 
" Twenty Short Discourses, adapted to Village Worship ; 
or, The Devotions of the Family," A third volume of " Ser- 
mons " appeared in 1885. 

" Mr. Beddome," says the eminent Robert Hall, " was, on 
many accounts, an extraordinary person. His mind was 
cast in an original mould ; his conceptions on every subject 
were eminently his own." " Favored with the advantages 
of a learned education, he continued to the last to cultivate 
an acquaintance with the best writers of antiquity, to which 
he was much indebted for the chaste, terse, and nervous 
diction, which distinguished his compositions both in prose 
and verse." "He was eminent for his colloquial powers, 
in which he displayed the urbanity of the gentleman, and 
the erudition of the scholar, combined with a more copious 
vein of attic salt than any person it has been my lot to 
know." 

Many of his hymns which have long been in familiar use 
are selected from " Hymns adapted to Public Worship or 
Family Devotion, Now first published from the manu- 
scripts of the late Rev. B. Beddome, A.M. With a Rec- 
ommendatory Preface by the Rev. R. Hall, A.M. London, 
1818. " More than fifty of these had been contributed (1787) 
to Dr. Rippon's " Selection," and so had found their way 
into other Collections and periodicals. The volume con- 
tains 822 hymns and 8 doxologies, all original. The most 
of them were written to be sung in connection with the 
author's discourses, after the manner of Drs. Watts and 
Doddridge. 

Montgomery speaks of his hjmms as " very agreeable as 
well as impressive, being for the most part brief and pithy. 
A single idea, always important, often striking, and some 
times ingeniously brought out, not with a mere point at 
the end, but with the terseness and simplicity of the Greek 



NATHAN SYDNEY SMITH BEMAN. 55 

epigram, constitutes the basis of eacii piece." His name 
would deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance if lie 
had left no other memorial of the excellent sj^irit which 
was in him than the few humble verses : 

" Let party names no more," etc. 

A single specimen — the 557tli of his book — will abundantly 
confirm these commendations : 

" Jesus, my Saviour ! bind me fast, 
In cords of heavenly love ; 
Then sweetly draw me to thy breast, 
Nor let me thence remove. 

' ' Draw me from all created good, 
Myself, the world, and sin, 
To the dear fountain of thy blood, 
And make me pure within. 

" Oh ! lead me to thy mercy-seat, 
Attract me nearer still — 
Draw me, like Mary, to thy feet, 
To sit and leai'n thy will. 

*' Oh ! draw me by thy providence, 
Thy spirit and thy word, 
From all the things of time and sense, 
To thee, my gracious Lord ! " 



NATHAN SYDNEY SMITH BEMAN. 

1785-1871. 

The Rev. Dp.. Bemats^ was born in the town of Canaan 
(now New Lebanon), Columbia County, New York, Novem- 
ber 27, 1785. His father, Samuel Beman, was of German 
descent, highly respectable, of good intellect, a man of 
business, a gentleman of old-school manners and habits, 
wearing breeches and buckles to the last (1845), and an 



56 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

adherent of the Episcopal Church. His mother, Silence 
Douglas, was of Scotch Presbyterian origin. His parents 
removed in 1790 to Hampton, Washington County, ISTew 
York. 

Nathan remained on the farm until his fifteenth year. 
He then entered an academy, taught by Mr. BoUes, of the 
University of Dublin, in Poultney, Vt., — one-half of his 
father's fann lying in this town. Two years afterwards 
(1802) he was sent to the grammar school at Williamstown, 
Mass., and entered Williams College in 1803. He was 
transferred to Middlebury College, Vt., in 1804, where he 
graduated in 1807. While in his junior year he became a 
subject of divine grace, and, at his graduation, he relin- 
quished his original design of becoming a lawyer, and re- 
solved to seek the Christian ministry. He accei3ted an in- 
vitation to become the Princijial of Lincoln Academy, New- 
castle, Maine, and at the same time pursued a course of 
theological study with the Pev. Kiah Bailey, the pastor of 
the Congregational church of that town. At the expira- 
tion of nearly two years, June 14, 1809, he was licensed by 
the Lincoln and Kennebec Association to preach the Gos- 
pel. In the autumn of the same year he became a Tutor of 
Middlebury College. Shortly after, he accepted a call from 
the Third Congregational Church of Portland, Me., and 
was ordained their pastor March 10, 1810. 

At an early period he developed symptoms of pulmonary 
disease, which compelled him to relinquish his x)astoral 
charge. He was dismissed in October, 1812, and immedi- 
ately sought a milder climate. He found a home in Han- 
cock County, Ga., where he gathered a Presbyterian church 
and established a classical school for both sexes, and speed- 
ily acquired a high reputation as a teacher. This position 
he held for ten years, with the exception of the year 1818, 
when he served as President of Franklin College, Athens, 
Ga. In 1822 he returned to the North, and in SejDtember 
was invited to preach in the First Presbyterian Church of 
Troy, N. Y. He received soon after a call to be its pastor, 
and was installed June 17, 1823. In this post, which by 



NATHAN SYDNEY SMITH BEMAN. 57 

his superior abilities and Ms eminent faithfulness lie greatly 
adorned, lie remained for forty years. Then, at his own 
request, he was released, June 16, 1863, from the active work 
of the pastor, and retained as " Pastor Emeritus." 

He was twice married — first to a Vermont lady, and then 
to a Southern lady, whom also he survived. The last few 
years of his life were silent with his daughter at Carbon- 
dale, 111., where he died August 8, 1871, in his eighty-sixth 
year. 

Dr. Beman was no ordinary man. As a preacher, a the- 
ologian, a debater, a counselor, a philanthropist, and a 
reformer, he occupied the very first rank. In fact, he had 
very few peers, scarcely any superiors. He was a mighty 
champion in the cause of Temperance and of Anti- Slavery. 
He favored, with his whole heart, the work of Revivals of 
Religion, and his preaching was peculiarly adapted to pro- 
mote them. Everywhere he was acknowledged as a most 
effective leader, as " a master in Israel." Williams College 
conferred on him, in 1824, the honorary degree of D.D., and 
Middlebury College, Vt., in 1852, the honorary degree of 
LL.D. He was the Moderator of the Presbyterian General 
Assembly of 1831, and took a foremost part in the debates 
that led (1837-1838) to the dismemberment of the Church, 
pleading the cause that he loved with a force of argument 
and a loftiness of eloquence that challenged universal ad- 
miration. He was the acknowledged peer of the greatest 
statesmen of the land. Pulpits of the first class and presi- 
dencies of colleges were repeatedly offered him, but he de- 
clined them all. He lived to witness the two darling de- 
sires of his heart — the Abolition of American Slavery and 
the Reunion of the Presbyterian Church. 

His publications were few. His " Four Sermons on the 
Doctrine of the Atonement, Troy, 1825," excited great in- 
terest, and their publication had a marked efl'ect on the 
theological controversies of the period. His " Sacred Lyr- 
ics," or " Select Hymns, particularly adapted to Re\dvals of 
Religion, and intended as a Supplement to Watts, by Na- 
than S. S. Beman ; Troy, 1832," was followed in 1841 by a 



58 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

much larger compilation, with the same name, " intended 
to be a complete Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the 
Use of the Sanctuary." A second and revised edition, to 
which he gave the name of " The Church Psalmist," was 
published in 1843, and received the endorsement of the 
[N. S.] General Assembly of that year. It has had an ex- 
tensive circulation, and, until recently, was largely in use. 
The only hymns from his pen are the following three, 
which first appeared in " Sacred Lyrics " with his initial 
[B.]: 

" Jesus ! I come to thee," etc, — 

" Jesus ! we bow before tliy throne," etc. — 

" Hark ! the judgment-trumpet sounding." 



ERASTUS CORNELIUS BENEDICT. 

1800-1880. 

Me. Benedict was an honored counselor of the city of 
New York. He was a descendant of Thomas Benedict (1617- 
1690), of Norwalk, Conn. His great-grandfather, Peter, son 
of Deacon James, of Ridgefield, Conn. , settled early in the 
last century at Salem, Westchester Co., N. Y. His grand- 
father, Abner (1740-1818), was the brother of the Rev. Joel 
Benedict, D.D. (1745-1816), an eminent biblical and classi- 
cal scholar, of Plainfield, Conn., and was himself a minister 
of the Gosjoel, and pastor successively of the Congrega- 
tional churches of Middlefield, Conn., and New Lebanon, 
N. Y., a preacher subsequently in Morris Co., N. J., and 
Roxbury, N. Y., — having graduated at Yale College, in 
1769. His father, Joel Tyler Benedict (1772-1833), born 
at Middlefield, Conn., began life as a lawyer in Connecti- 
cut ; but, having been converted in his thirtieth year, he 
was licensed, June 15, 1802, by the Morris County Presby- 
tery, and ordained November 16, 1803, as an evangelist, at 
Blooming Grove, N. Y. He was eminently blessed in his 



EEASTUS COENELIUS BENEDICT. 59 

ministry as a laborer for many years in reidvals of religion, 
and subsequently as a pastor at Franklin, N. Y,, and Chat- 
ham, N. Y. In 1816 he removed to Philadelj)hia, and for 
many years, until his death, October 23, 1833, he was the 
Secretary of the Pennsylvania Tract Society. His piety 
was of a high order. 

Erastus was born, March 19, 1800, at Branford, Conn. 
He graduated at Williams College in 1821, and in 1824 was 
admitted to the bar, at New York, where he resided until 
his death, October 22, 1880. During his extended profes- 
sional life, he acquired a well-earned reputation for legal 
skill, eminent integrity, and accurate scholarship. Long 
a pronounced Christian in connection with the Presbyterian 
and the Reformed churches, he was known as a wise coun- 
selor and earnest friend of the Church, ever ready to pro- 
mote its interests. He took quite an active and iDrominent 
part in advancing the cause of education. At various 
times, he served as a trustee of the public schools of the 
city, a member and President of its Board of Education, 
and, from 1855, as a Regent of the University of New York. 
On several occasions, also, he was elected a member of the 
City Council and of the State Legislature, as Assembly- 
man and as Senator. In 1865 Rutgers College, New Jer- 
sey, conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. I). 

Besides several pamphlets, reviews, and addresses pub- 
lished at various dates, he brought out in 1838 his " Pres- 
byterianism : a Review"; in 1850 his "American Admiral- 
ty "; in 1863 " The Beginning of America " — an anniversary 
discourse before the New York Historical Society, of which 
he had long been an active member. In 1867 he brought 
out, in a beautiful form, " The Hymn of Hildebert, and 
other Mediaeval Hymns, with Translations " from his own 
pen — "the agreeable labor of occasional hours of leisure. 
Several of them," he says, " have at different times, during 
the last fifteen years, appeared in public journals — literary 
and religious." The translations are remarkably true to 
the original ; the stanza, metre, and double rhymes being 
faithfully preserved. 



60 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

The closing portion of tlie hymn of Hildebert, beginning 
with that beautiful strain, 

" Urbs coelestis! iirbs beata," 

fairly exhibits his style and poetic ability : 

" Heavenly city ! happy d welling'! 
Built upon that stone excelling: 
City safe in heavenly keeping ! 
Hail ! m distant glory sleeping ! 
Thee I hail, for thee am sighing — 
Thee I love, for thee am dying. 

How thy heavenly hosts are singing — 
And their festive voices ringing — 
What the love then' souls conforming — 
What the gems the walls adorning — 
Chalcedon and jacinth shining 
Know they all, those walls confining. 

In that city's glorious meeting 
Moses and Elias greeting — 
Holy jjrophets gone before us — 

Let me sing the heavenly chorus." 



HENEY BENNETT. 

1813-1868. 

The year before his death, Mr. Bennett, of London, 
published an unassuming volume -vvdth the simple title, 
" Hymns by H. Bennett, London, 1867." 

Mr. Bennett was born at Lyme Regis, on the sea-coast of 
Dorsetshire, England, April 18, 1813. His hymns were the 
fruit of his leisure hours, and many of them appeared occa- 
sionally in various publications. His death occurred No- 
vember 12, 1868, at Islington, London. The last two double 
stanzas of the hymn, "I have a Home Above," are sub- 
joined : 

"But more than all I long 
His glories to behold, 



EICHAED MEUX BENSON. 61 

Whose smile fills all that radiant throug 

With ecstasy untold. 
That bright, yet tender, smile — 

My sweetest welcome there — 
Shall cheer me through the little while 

I tarry for him here. 

' Thy love, thou precious Lord ! 

My joy and strength shall he, 
Till thou shalt speak the gladdening word 

That bids me rise to thee. 
And then, through endless days, 

Where all thy glories shine. 
In happier, holier strains I'll praise 

The grace that made me thine." 



RICHAED MEUX BENSON. 

Me. BEif sot^ was a scholar of Christ Church College, Ox- 
ford, and graduated, B.A., November, 1847. He was the 
successful competitor for the Kennicott Hebrew scholar- 
ship. He was ordained deacon June 18, 1848, and priest 
June 3, 1849, by the Bishop of Oxford. In 1850 he was 
preferred to the perpetual curacy of St. John's Church, 
Cowley, a living that he still continues to hold. 

In 1865 he was visited by the Hev. Charles C. G-rafton, of 
Boston, Mass., on which occasion was organized, under the 
patronage of Mr. Benson, because of his " high social posi- 
tion, wealth, and literary attainments, the Society called 
' The Cowley Fathers.' " This Society pledge themselves to 
renounce the world and devote themselves to mission work. 
" They have all things in common ; accept no salaries, only 
a provision for actual support in an economical way ; do 
not marry ; take their meals in silence ; and follow daily 
rules of devotion." Their principal stations are Oxford, 



62 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

England, and Boston, Mass. Mr. Benson in 1870 returned 
" Father " Grafton's visit, and officiated frequently in sev- 
eral of the Episcopal dioceses of the United States. 
He contributed to " Hymns, Ancient and Modern," 

" Praise to God wlio reigns above," etc., 

and the following translation of " Jesu, Redemptor onini« 
um," etc. : 

' ' O thou whose all-redeeming' might 
Crowns every chief in faith's true fight, 
On this conunemoration day- 
Hear us, good Jesu, while we pray. 

"In faithful strife for thy dear name 
Thy servant earned the saintly fame, 
Which pious hearts with prayers revere 
In constant memory year hj year. 

" Earth's fleeting joys he counted naught. 
For higher, truer joys he sought. 
And now, with angels round thy throne, 
Unfading treasiwes are his own. 

' ' O grant that we, most gracious God ! 
May follow m the steps he ti'od : 
And, freed from every stain of sin, 
As he hath won may also win. 

"To thee, O Christ, our loving King! 
All glory, praise, and thanks we bring ; 
Whom with the Father we adore, 
And Holy Ghost, for evermore." 

As an author he is favorably known by the following 
works: "The Wisdom of the Son of David," Pro v. i.-ix. ; 
" Redemption : some of the Aspects of the Work of Christ, 
considered in a Course of Sermons " (1861) ; " Tlie Divine 
Rule of Prayer " ; " The Manual of an Association for 
Prayer on Behalf of the Unconverted " (1862) ; " Lays of 
Memory, Sacred and Social, by a Mother and Son"; besides 
several single Sermons, and a Manual of Confirmation. 



BERNARD, OF CLAIRVAUX. 63 

BERNARD, OF CLAIRVAUX 

1091-1153. 

Bernard's hymns are among the purest, sweetest, and 
richest of Latin hymnology. His master-piece, " De Nom- 
ine Jesu," as found in Daniel's "Thesaurus Hymnolo- 
gicus," contains forty-eight four-line stanzas. Wacker- 
nagel, in his "Das Deutsche Kirchenlied" (1862), gives 
eight additional stanzas. 

Bernard was born in 1091 at Fontaine, Burgundy, a vil- 
lage of which his father, Tecelin, was lord. His i)arents 
were both of high birth, his father being a knight of 
the house of Chatillon, and his godly mother, Alix, or 
Alethe, a daughter of Count Bernard, of Montbar. He was 
educated, with great strictness and care, at Chatillon on 
the Seine and at the University of Paris. Tlie loss of his 
mother, in his twentieth year, determined his choice of a 
monastic life. He had live brothers, all of whom, and 
twenty-five other young men, by dint of faithful and per- 
severing eifort, he induced to enter with him, 1113, the 
monastery of Citeaux, near Dijon, of the Order of Cister- 
cians, founded 1098. A rigid comjoliance "udth the rigorous 
rules of the Order soon reduced him almost to a skeleton. 
Tliis very haggardness, however, gave him fame. 

At the end of two years he was sent forth, with twelve 
other monks, to found a new monastery. He chose a wild 
gorge, known as " The Yalley of Wormwood," in Cham- 
pagne, diocese of Langres, a noted robber haunt. He gave 
it the name of " Clara Vallis," whence " Clairvaux " — " The 
Beautiful Valley." As Abbot of Clairvaux, he soon be- 
came known and noted throughout Christendom. Disci- 
ples flocked to him from all quarters. Not less than seven 
hundred novitiates, at one time, were attached to the mon- 
astery. Of his pupils, one became a Pope ; six. Cardinals ; 
and thirty. Bishops. Not less than seventy-two branches 
of the Order were founded by himself in France, Spain, and 



64 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Britain. At his deatli, the Order nmnbered one hundred 
and sixty monasteries. 

By his learning, his energy, his austerity, and his re- 
puted sanctity, he acquired an immense influence. His ad- 
vice and counsel were universally sought, and his i3reaching 
welcomed with enthusiasm. He was summoned repeatedly 
to the great Councils of the Church, where his opinions 
were hailed as the perfection of wisdom. The great schism 
in the Fallacy was healed, mainly by his interj^osition, 
in behalf of Innocent II. At the Conference in Sens, 
1140, he confronted and confounded the rationalizing 
Abelard. The great crusade of 1147 was undertaken, 
chiefly at his instigation, by Louis VII., King of France. 
Worn down by his great austerities and abundant labors, 
he died, August 20, 1153, at the Abbey of Clairvaux. 

His literary remains were published, 1515, at Venice, in 
two quarto volumes, and, 1645, at Paris, in five folios. 
They include 439 Letters, 340 Sermons (princiiDally on 
"The Song of Solomon," to the study of which he was 
greatly addicted), and 12 Treatises. Seven considerable 
Poems are claimed as his, written, it is thought, about 
1140. 

Twelve years after his death he was canonized by the 
Pope, and, in 1174, he was piiblicly enrolled among " THe 
Saints." Luther said of him: "If there has ever been a 
pious monk who feared God, it was St. Bernard, whom 
alone I hold in much higher esteem than all other monks 
and priests throughout the globe." 



BERNARD, OF MORLAIX. 

Beeistaed was born at Morlaix, in Bretagne, of English 
parents. Of the dates of his birth and death, and of the 
incidents of his life, nothing is now known, save that the 
most of his life was spent, in the twelfth century, at Cluny, 



BEENAED, OF MOELAIX. 65 

on the little river Grone, in the Department of Saone et 
Loire, in a valley between two mountains, about 200 miles 
southeast of Paris. The Abbey had acquired, in the twelfth 
century, great renown. Peter, of Cluny, known as "The 
Venerable," succeeded Hugh II. as General of the Order 
and Abbot of Cluny, in 1121, at the age of twenty-eight 
years. He presided over the monastery until his death, 
December 24, 11.56. He was the intimate friend of Bernard 
of Clairvaux. The church of Cluny was then regarded as 
the most magnificent in France, and the monastery itself as 
one of the most illustrious in Christendom. 

It was at this period that Bernard, the poet, occujpied one 
of the cells of Cluny. When not emj)loyed in monastic 
duties according to the rules of his Order, he occupied 
himself in the cultivation of his poetic talent. One of the 
happy fruits of these leisure hours is the divine poem, " De 
Contemptu Mundi." It is an elaborate production of three 
thousand lines, peculiarly constructed. Every line is a hex- 
ameter of five dactyles and one spondee, after the following 
fashion : 

" Tunc nova gloria | pectora sobria | clarificabit : 
Solvit enigmata | veraque sabbata | continuabit. 
Patria luminis | inscia turbinis | inscia litis, 
Give replebitur | amplificabitur | Iraelitis. 

Thus every line is composed of three parts, the second 
rhyming with the first, and the third with the third of the 
following or preceding line. It is wonderfully artistic. 
"Our language," says ISTeale, "would utterly fail to give 
any idea of the majestic sweetness which invests it in Latin. 
Its difficulty in that language is such that Bernard, in a 
preface, expresses his belief that nothing but the special 
inspiration of the Spirit of God could have enabled him to 
employ it through so long a poem." 

The author shows his regard for his superior, " Peter, the 
Venerable," by commending the work to his favor in a suit- 
able Dedication. Of its Plan, he gives the following ac- 
count : 

" The Subject of the author is— The Advent of Christ to 
5 



66 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Judgment ; The Joys of the Saints ; The Pains of the Rep- 
robate. His Intention — To persuade to the Contempt of 
the World. The Use— To despise the Things of the World ; 
To seek the Things which be God's. " Neale calls it '• a bitter 
satire on the fearful corru]3tions of the age. But as a con- 
trast to the misery and pollution of earth, the poem opens 
with a description of the peace and glory of heaven, of such 
rare beauty as not easily to be matched by any medieval 
composition on the same subject." 

The first portion of the poem has been happily and beau- 
tifully put into English verse by the Rev. John Mason 
Neale, D.D., and published in his " Mediaeval Hjnnns and 
Sequences." 



JOHN BERRIDGE. 

1716-1793. 

John Beeeidge was the eldest son of a w^ealthy farmer 
and grazier of Kingston, Nottinghamshire, England, where 
he was born March 1, 1716. The greater i)art of his early 
years he spent with an aunt in the town of Nottingham, 
where, also, he acquired the rudiments of a common-school 
education. At the age of fourteen he returned home and 
was employed on the farm. But such was his inaptness 
for agriculture as to constrain his father to say to him, — 
" John, I find you are unable to form any practical idea of 
the price of cattle, and, therefore, I shall send you to col- 
lege, to be a light to the Gentiles." 

About this time he was hopefully converted, mainly by 
the agency of a pious companion and a godly tailor of the 
neighborhood. He now gave himself to study and devo- 
tion. After a suitable preparatory course, he entered Clare 
Hall, Cambridge, October 28, 1734, where he pursued his 
■studies with the greatest avidity. He graduated, A.B. in 
1738, and A.M. in 1742. Having been chosen one of the 



JOHN BEERIDGE. 67 

Fellows of his college, he continued his residence at the 
University for twenty years, devoting himself to literary 
pursuits, and, for several years, exercising his gifts as a 
preacher. His remarkable wit and humor made him a great 
favorite in the University, and disposed him to a familiarity 
with Hudibras and other humorous publications. At the 
same time he pursued his classical studies so indefatigably 
as to compel his college associate. Rev. Henry Venn, with 
whom he was intimate for fifty years, to say of him, that 
" he was as familiar with the learned, languages as he was 
with his mother tongue." During his residence at Clare 
Hall, he regularly devoted fifteen hours daily to the acqui- 
sition of knowledge. 

In his thirty-fourth year (1749), he accepted the curacy 
of Stapleford, a small village of rustics, five miles south of 
Cambridge. He served them, for six years, from the Uni- 
versity, preaching occasionally at St. Mary's Church, Cam- 
bridge. By the presentation of his associate Fellows of 
Clare Hall, he was admitted, July 7, 1755, to the vicarage 
of Everton, an obscure village in the edge of Bedfordshire, 
about twenty miles soiith-southwest of the University. 
This humble position he retained for life. 

Thus far he had seen but little fruit of his ministry. At 
an early period of his college residence, he had so far im- 
bibed Socinian views as to intermit private prayer most of 
the time for ten years. These views, however, he had re- 
linquished before entering on the work of the ministry. 
Still he clung to a low Arminianism, and preached mainly 
a legal righteousness. At a later day he said of himself : 
" Once I went to Jesus like a coxcomb, and gave myself 
fine airs, — fancying if he was something, so was I; if he had 
merit, so had I. And I used him as a healthy man will use 
a walking-staff — lean an ounce upon it, or vapor with it in 
the air. But now he is my whole crutch ; no foot can stir 
a step without him." 

This change occurred early in 1758. As he sat mourn- 
fully musing one day, perplexed and anxious about his re- 
ligious state, a voice seemed to say to him : " Cease from 



68 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tliine own works ; only believe." At once Ms burden was 
gone, and he found " joy and peace in believing." A deep 
impression was now made on the hearts of his parishioners 
by the presentation of his ne:Y views. They crowded the 
church, and not a few were hopefully converted. He 
burned up all his old sermons, began to preach without 
notes, and abounded in labors for the spiritual good of his 
people. At midsummer he began to itinerate among the 
villages of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdon- 
shire, nothing daunted by the rebukes of his bishop, and 
the opposition of the ungodly. He was greatly encouraged 
by the kind words of John Wesley and George Whitefield, 
with whom, soon after, he gladly entered into delightful 
fellowship. 

A wonderful work of grace ensued in 1759. No church 
could hold the crowds that flocked to hear him. " He took 
to the fields " (May 14, 1759), and preached in the open air to 
thousands. He extended his circuit to Essex and Hertford, 
preaching ten and twelve times a week. " Ten or fifteen 
thousand, at some places, composed his congregation, and 
he was well heard by all of them. People came to hear 
him from the distance of twenty miles," reaching Everton 
in time to attend his morning service at seven o'clock. 
Four times on the Sunday, and often through the week, he 
j)reached the word. Four thousand souls, it was computed, 
were converted mthin twelve months under the preaching 
of himself and the Rev. Mr. Hicks, of Wrestlingworth, — 
a convert under Berridge's preaching. Romaine, Madan, 
Venn, Fletcher, and Lady Huntingdon visited and cheered 
him. Opposition showed itself in the most violent forms, 
but he gloried in tribulation. 

He now began to make periodical visits to London, 
Brighton, and Bath, as a temporary supply for White- 
field's and Lady Huntingdon's chapels. In 1771, he es- 
poused the distinctive doctrines of Calvinism, and became 
a frequent contributor, both in i:)rose and verse, to 77ie 
Gospel Ifagazine, associating with Newton, Toplady, Sim- 
eon, and men of like sjoirit. He suffered, for twenty-five 



JOHN BEERIDGE. 69 

years, from acute disease, but notliing impeded his work or 
abated Ms zeal. He died of asthma, January 22, 1793, at 
his home in Everton. 

He was greatly addicted to poetical composition, but his 
verse has but little to commend it to a refined taste. In 
1760 he published " A Collection of Divine Songs, designed 
chiefly for the Religious Societies of Churchmen in the 
neighborhood of Everton, Bedfordshire." It was a compi- 
lation, mostly from Charles Wesley, with a few from Watts 
and other authors (greatly altered), and some originals. 
After the change in his doctrinal views, he sought to sup- 
press this publication, buying and burning every copy that 
he could obtain. 

In 1785 he published an original work of 342 Hymns, enti- 
tled " Sion's Songs or Hymns, composed for the Use of them 
that love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity." 
Of its origin, he says : " Hl-health, some years past, having 
kept me from travelling or preaching, I took up the trade 
of Hymn-making, a handicraft much followed of late, but 
a business I w^as not born or bred to, and undertaken chiefly 
to keep a long sickness from preying on my spirits, and to 
make tedious nights pass over more smoothly." " Twelve 
years ago, these Hymns were composed in a six months' 
illness." "A few of them occasionally rambled into maga- 
zines, under the signature of 'Old Everton.'" Their com- 
position, therefore, is to be referred to the year 1773. 

The best of these is the poiDular marriage hymn, 

" Since Jesus freely did appear," 
and his hymn on the text, Ps. cxxxi. 2 : 

■'Jesus ! cast a look on me, 
Give me sweet simplicity, 
Make me poor and keep me low, 
Seeking only thee to know. 

" Weaned fi"om my lordly self. 
Weaned from the miser's pelf. 
Weaned from the scorn er's ways, 
Weaned from the lust of praise. 



70 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

" All that feeds my busy pride, 
Cast it evermore aside, 
Bid my will to thine submit. 
Lay me humbly at thy feet. 

"Make me like a little child, 
Of my strength and wisdom spoiled, 
Seeing only in thy light, 
Walking only in thy might. 

"Leaning on thy loving breast, 
Where a weary soul may rest ; 
Feeling well the peace of God 
Flowing from thy precious blood. 

" In this posture let me live. 
And hosannas daily give ; 
In this temper let me die. 
And. hosannas ever cry." 

The first, third, and fourth of these stanzas are from a hymn 

by Charles Wesley (altered) on Isa, xxviii. 9, beginning 

with — 

" Lord ! that I may learn of thee." 

Several others of his hymns had a similar origin. 

He published also, in 1773, " The Christian World Un- 
masked," an exceedingly quaint and thoroughly evangel- 
ical book, full of wit, wisdom, and godly counsel. It has 
had a verv extensive circulation. 



GEORGE WASHINGTOIS" BETHUNE. 

1805-1862. 

The Rev. George W. Bethune, D.D., the Christian 
gentleman, the ripe scholar, the graceful poet, and the elo- 
quent divine, was born in the city of New York, March 18, 
1805. His honored father, Divie Bethune, the successful 
and honest merchant, and the Christian philanthropist, was 



GEOEGE WASHINGTON BETHUNE. 71 

born at Dingwall, Ross-sMre, Scotland, in 1771, and was of 
Hugnenot descent ; he came to New York in 1792, was an 
elder in tlie churcli of tlie senior Dr. Mason from 1802, and 
died September 18, 1824. His no less honored mother, 
Joanna Graham, was the second daughter of Dr. John 
Gfraham, of Paisley, Scotland, and Isabella Marshall. Mrs. 
Graham came, a widow with four children, to New York, 
September, 1789, and united with the same church. She was 
" a mother in Israel," and of the highest repute for piety, 
intelligence, and philanthropy — qualities that were also 
strikingly exemiDlified in her daughter, Mrs. Bethune. 

Blessed with such a parentage, George was trained after 
the model of the word of God. In his iif teenth year (1819), 
he entered Columbia College, where he diligently prose- 
cuted his studies for three years. He then entered Dick- 
inson College, Carlisle, Pa., of which his father's friend, the 
distinguished John M. Mason, D.D., was then the Presi- 
dent. There he graduated in 1823, and thence, having been 
converted the year before, proceeded to Princeton, N. J., 
where he studied two years in the Theological Seminary. 
He married, November 4, 1825, Miss Mary Williams, and 
spent the winter in the West Indies. He was licensed by 
the Second Presbytery of New York, July 11, 1828. The 
following November he went to Savannah, Ga. , where he 
labored as a missionary to the sailors and the colored peo- 
ple. Having been ordained by the Second Presbytery of 
New York in 1827, he became the pastor of the Reformed 
Dutch church of Rhinebeck, N. Y. ; in 1830, he accepted a 
call to the R. D. church of Utica, N. Y., and was installed 
November 7, 1830 ; in September, 1834, he became the pas- 
tor of the First R. D. church of Philadelphia. In the sum- 
mer of 1836 he visited Europe, and, on his return. May, 
1837, he became the pastor of the Third church of the same 
city. Here he remained until 1850, having visited Europe 
a second time, in 1841. He now made a third visit to the 
Old World, and, on his return, removed to Brooklyn, N. Y. , 
and took charge of the R. D. church on the Heights. The 
loss of health compelled him to go abroad, in February, 



72 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

1859, and to resign his pastorate in April, 1859. On liis re 
turn lie was (November 20, 1859) associated with the Rev. 
Dr. Abraham R. Van Nest, in the pastorate of the Twenty- 
first Street R. D. church. Again, in the autumn of 1861, 
he sought health in Europe, but death overtook him, in the 
shai)e of congestion of the brain, April 27, 1802. He died 
greatly lamented, as he had been greatly honored and loved. 

"He stood," says -Dr. Ferris, "in the front rank of minis- 
ters of the gospel. Originally endowed with a fine mind, 
and furnished with every possible facility for cultivating 
and furnishing it, he achieved a very high degree of success 
in the pulpit and elsewhere. A thorough master of Eng- 
lish, of finished taste, fertile in thought, rich in illustra- 
tion, skilled in dialectics, familiar with the stores of the 
past, yet with a quick eye to the present, a proficient in 
helles-leUres, he had almost every literary requisite for the 
composition of sermons. When to this it is added, that he 
was sound in the faith, and had his heart in the work ; 
that he had a most musical voice of rare compass and mod- 
ulation, it is not wonderful that his reputation stood so 
high. He was a close and diligent student, and never w^as 
ashamed to confess it. His platform efforts w^ere always 
Impromptu, but for the pulpit he felt conscientiously bound 
to make careful and thorough preparation." "He had a 
nice ear for music, and sometimes composed sacred harmo- 
nies ; he had a fine taste in painting and sculpture ; he was 
an accomplished Latinist and Grecian; he was familiar with 
a number of modern languages, some of which he spoke 
fluently ; he was well read in the history of philosophy, and 
his general information was both extensive and accurate. " 

His i)ublications were numerous. The principal are : "A 
Word to the Afflicted"; " The Fruit of the Spirit" (1839) ; 
"Early Lost, Early Saved" (1846) ; "The History of a Pen- 
itent" (1847) ; " Sermons" (1847) ; "A Commentary on the 
130th Psalm " (1847) ; " Lays of Love and Faith, and Other 
Poems " (1848) ; " Orations and Occasional Discourses " 
(1850) ; together with two posthumous works — " The Me- 
moirs of Mrs. Joanna Bethune " (1863), and " Lectures on 



GEORGE WASHINGTON BETHUNE. 73 

the Heidelberg Catechism," in two vols. (1864). He edited, 
also, an edition of " Walton's Complete Angler " (1847), and 
a volume of " British Female Poets " (1848), with biograph- 
ical and critical notices. 

He was repeatedly honored with invitations to the pas- 
torate, to professorships, and presidencies of colleges. 
Many of the published " Orations " were delivered at col- 
lege commencements. He received the honorary degree of 
D.D., in 1838, from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Bethune, with his characteristic good taste, and keen 
sense of the beautiful in art, successfully cultivated the 
poetic Muse. He versified with great ease and much grace. 
Some of his effusions are admirable specimens of the lyric 
art. On one occasion, having taken his seat in the pulpit 
in advance of the time for the opening of the public ser- 
vice, his longings for a revival of religion prompted him to 
write, with a pencil, on a scrap of paper, the hymn, begin- 
ning with 

" Oh ! for the happy hour ! " 

The hymn, 

" Come, let us sing of Jesus," 

was written for his Sunday-School. 

" It is not death to die," 

was suggested by the beautiful hymn, written by Csesar 
Malan, 

" Non, ce n' est pas mourir! " 

His Scotch origin is beautifully attested in a lyric, written 
after hearing Mr. Dempster sing, two stanzas of which 
follow : 

*' Oh ! sing to me the auld Scotch sangs, 

I' the braid Scottish tongue. 
The sangs my father loved to hear, 

The sangs my mither sung. 
When she sat beside my cradle. 

Or crooned me on her knee, 
An' I wad na sleep, she sang so sweet, 

The auld Scotch sangs to me. 



74 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Sing ony o' the aulcl Scotch sangs, 

The bly thesome or the sad : 
They mak' me smile when I am wae, 

An' greet when I am glad : 
My heart gaes back to auld Scotland, 

The saut tears dim mine e'e, 
An' the Scotch hluid leaps in a' my Teins^ 

As ye sing thae sangs to me." 



EDWARD BICKERSTETH. 

1786-1850. 

The name of Bickerstetli is of hallowed memory, en- 
shrined in the hearts of intelligent Christians throughout 
Great Britain and America. He was born March 19, 1786, at 
Kirkby-Lonsdale, Westmoreland, England. Henry Bick- 
ersteth, his father, was a respectable surgeon ; but neither 
the father, nor the mother, Elizabeth Batty, had any special 
interest in religion. After a good grammar-school educa- 
tion, Edward, at the age of fourteen (January, 1801), ob- 
tained a jiosition in the Dead Letter Office, London. Nearly 
six years afterward (November, 1806), he was articled to 
Mr. Bleasdale, solicitor, and became a student of law, first 
at Hatton Court, and then (May, 1808) at New Inn. 

In his twenty-first year, he became a true convert to 
Christ, but continued his law studies and pursuits until 
May, 1812. He then married Miss Sarah Bignold, of Nor- 
wich, to w^hich place he removed, and entered into business 
there with her brother Thomas. Though prosperity at- 
tended him, he had longing desires to devote himself to 
the work of the ministry. For years he abounded in works 
of benevolence and piety, and prosecuted theological study. 
At length, in his thirtieth year, he gave up his worldly 
business, and was ordained deacon, December 10, 1815, by 
the Bishop of Norwich, and priest, eleven days later, by 
the Bishop of Gloucester. 



EDWARD BICKERSTETH. (j^ 

In January, 1816, lie embarked for Africa, on an official 
visit to the stations of the Church Missionary Society in 
Western and Southern Africa. He returned in August fol- 
lowing, and the next month he accepted the position of 
Resident Secretary of the Society, or Associate Secretary 
with the Rev. Josiah Pratt. In this laborious service he 
continued nearly fourteen years, ministering at the same 
time in Wheler Chapel, Spitalfields, London. Appointed, 
August, 1830, to the living of Watton, Hertfordshire, he 
resigned his Secretaryship, and entered upon a course of 
diligent and successful parochial labor. In the faithful 
discharge of his pastoral duties, in the i^reparation and 
publication of numerous evangelical treatises and books, in 
the advocacy, by the pen and in person, all over the king- 
dom, of the Cause of Missions, and in the promotion, by all 
available means, of the Gospel, he passed the remaining 
twenty years of a most busy and useful life. He died at 
Watton, February 28, 1850, full of faith and hope. 

He made a diligent use of the press, in the advancement 
of the kingdom of Christ. He was the author, compiler, or 
editor of ninety-seven different publications, of which the 
following are the best known : " A Help to the Study of 
the Scriptures" (1814); "A Treatise on Prayer" (1819); 
"A Treatise on the Lord's Supper" (1822) ; "The Christian 
Hearer " (1825) ; " The Christian Student " (1827) ; " The 
Chief Concerns of Man for Time and Eternity," a Course of 
Valedictory Sermons at Wheler Chapel (1831) ; " Prepared- 
ness for the Day of Christ" (1833) ; "A Practical Guide to 
the Prophecies" (1835); "Christian Truth" (1838); "A 
Treatise on Baptism " (1839) ; " The Restoration of the 
Jews" (1841); "The Divine Warning to the Church" 
(1843) ; and " Family Expositions of the Epistles of St. 
John and St. Jude " (1846). His " Works," in 16 vols., were 
published in 1853. 

His poetic efforts were limited to the composition of a 
very few hymns of but little lyrical merit, found in his 
"Christian Psalmody," compiled in 1833, and enlarged in 
1841. In its latest form it contains 950 hvmns. More than 



76 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

250,000 copies of this book have been circulated in Great 
Britain and its Colonies. Tlie 426tli hymn of this book, 
entitled "The Converted Hindoo's Hymn," is from Mr. 
Bickersteth's pen. Four out of five stanzas are here 
given : 

" O thou, my soul ! forget no more 
The Friend who all thy misery bore; 
Let every idol be forgot ; 
But, O my soul ! forget him not. 

"Renounce thy works and ways with grief, 
And fly to this most siu-e rehef ; 
Nor him forget who left his throne, 
And for thy life gave up his own. 

'' Thy Lord for thee a body takes, 
Thy guilt assumes, thy fetters breaks. 
Discharging all thy dreadful debt : 
And canst thou e'er such love forget? 

"Ah! no, till life itself depart, 
His name shall cheer and warm my heart ; 
And, lisping this, from earth I'll rise, 
And join the chorus of the skies." 



EDWAEH HENRY BICKERSTETH. 

1825 . 

The Bickersteth family have been considerably addict- 
ed to hymnology. The " Christian Psalmody " of the 
Rev. Edward Bickersteth, of Watton, has just been noticed. 
His elder brother, John, Rector of Acton, Suffolk, — father 
of the Right Rev. Robert Bickersteth, D.D., the Bishop 
of Ripon since 1857, — published, in 1819, a Collection of 
" Psalms and Hymns, selected and revised," including sev- 
eral of his own composition. Edward Henry, the only son 
of Edward, has not only followed, in this respect, his father 



EDWAED HENRY BICKERSTETH. 77 

and uncle, but lias also developed a poetic genius denied to 
tliem botli. 

He was born, January 25, 1825, at Islington, London. He 
entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1843, and, for his 
skill in poetry, was awarded, 1844, 1845, 1846, the " Chan- 
cellor's Medal." The prize for the best English Essay also 
was awarded to him, November, 1846. He graduated, A. B. , 
in 1847. He was ordained deacon, February 6, 1848, by the 
Bishop of Norwich, and on the 24th was married to Miss 
Rosa Bignold, a maternal relative. Immediately after, he 
entered upon the Curacy of Banningham, Norfolk. He was 
ordained priest, February 4, 1849, — also by the Bishop of 
Norwich. At the close of 1851, he accepted a Curacy at 
Tunbridge Wells, a watering place in Kent. His stay here 
was short, for in April, 1852, he obtained, by the presenta- 
tion of the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Rectory of Hinton- 
Martell, Dorsetshire. Here he remained until 1855, when 
he was preferred to the living of Christ Church, Hamp- 
stead, in the northern suburbs of London, where he has 
continued to reside until now. In 1870 he made a brief 
visit to the United States. 

Mr. Bickersteth, like his father, has had much to do with 
tlie press. He has published the following valuable works: 
" Poems and Hymns " (1849) ; " Nineveh, a Poem " (1851) ; 
" Water from the Well- Spring for the Sabbath Hours of 
Afflicted Believers" (1852); " Psalms and Hymns, based on 
the ' Christian Psalmody' of the late Edward Bickersteth" 
(1858); "A Practical Commentary on the New Testament" 
(1864); "The Rock of Ages," " Plain Sunday Readings for 
Farm Boys," "Hades and Heaven" (1865); "Yesterday, 
To-Day, and For Ever— a Poem in Twelve Books" (1867); 
" The Spirit of Life," and " The Two Brothers and Other 
Poems" (1871). The latter contains many of liis earlier 
Poems, Fugitive Pieces, and Hymns, several of them bear 
ing date from 1844 to 1847, and written at college. His 
principal poem, " Yesterday," etc., is an epic of great merit, 
descriiDtive of the Church of Christ, and contains passages 
of great beauty. 



78 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

In 1858 lie selected about 400 hymns from his father's 
Collection, added 130 from other sources, including a few 
of his own, and published it as above. Not content with 
this, he published, in 1870, " The Hymnal Companion to 
the Book of Common Prayer," a book of 400 carefully se- 
lected and laboriously edited Hymns. The "Annotated 
Edition, \yith Introduction and Notes," is an admirable con- 
tribution to Hymnology. His hymn on the Trinity, 

" Father of heaven above," 

is from this work. The following two double stanzas are 
taken from his 90th hymn : 

" O brothers ! lift yotir voices, 

Triumphant songs to raise ; 
Till heaven on high rejoices, 

And earth is filled with praise : 
Ten thousand hearts are bounding 

With holy hopes and free ; 
The gospel-trump is sounding, 

The trump of jubilee. 

" O Christian brothers ! glorious 

Shall be the conflict's close : 
The cross hath been victorious, 

And shall be o'er its foes : 
Faith is our battle-token ; 

Our Leader all controls ; 
Our trophies, fetters broken : 

Our captives, ransomed souls." 



THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 

1721-1791. 

The blind bard of Annan, Rev. Thomas Blacklock, D.D., 
was the son of a bricklayer, and was born, November 10, 
1721, of English parents, at Annan, Scotland. When only 



THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 79 

six montlis old, he lost liis sight by small-pox. At an early 
age he developed a remarkably retentive memory, and a 
great thirst for knowledge. He liad a p>assion for poetry, 
and great skill in versilication. The best literature within 
his father's reach was read to him, and much of it was re- 
tained in memory. 

He was deprived of his father in his nineteenth year, and 
thrown upon his own resources. By the kindness of Dr. 
Stevenson, a physician of Edinburgh, who became his pa- 
tron, he received a regular course of instruction (1741-1751) 
at the University of that city. He thus became a proficient 
in the Latin, Greek, French, and Italian tongues, as well as 
his own. A volume of his poems was published in 1745 
at Glasgow, and another in 1754. Thereupon, the Rev. Jo- 
seph Spence, of Oxford, England, published " An Account 
of the Life, Character, and Poems of Mr. Blacklock, Stu- 
dent of Philosophy at Edinburgh," which Avas also prefixed 
to a quarto edition of his Poems, issued in 1756. After a 
three years' course of theological study at the Divinity 
Hall, Edinburgh, he was licensed, in 1758, by the Presbytery 
of Dumfries, as a preacher of the Gospel. 

On his presentation, in 1760, by the Earl of Stirling, to 
the parish of Kirkcudbright, his settlement was opposed by 
the parishioners on account of his blindness. Tlie case Avas 
carried to the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, then by ref- 
erence to the Synod of Galloway, and thence to the Gen- 
eral Assembly of 1761. After a full hearing of the case, 
the Assembly ordered. May 29tli, his induction by the Pres- 
bytery. Owing to the continued opposition of his parish- 
ioners, he accepted, at the end of three years, an annuity, 
resigned his living, and removed to Edinburgh. Having 
married ^liss Johnston, a surgeon's daughter, of Dumfries, 
he opened a boarding-school, and secured considerable pa- 
tronage. The University of Aberdeen, in 1766, conferred 
on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

He published, besides the " Poems " already noticed and 
several " Sermons," " Essays toward Universal Etymology " 



80 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

(1756); " Paraclesis, or Consolations deduced from Natural 
and Kevealed Religion " (1767) ; " Two Discourses on the 
Spirit and Evidences of Christianity " (1768) ; a satirical 
" Panegyric on Great Britain " (1773) ; " The Graham, an 
heroic Ballad " (1774); "Remarks on the Nature and Ex- 
tent of Liberty " (1776), suggested by the American AVar ; 
and an Article in the Eiicyclo2?cedia Britannica (1778) on 
the " Education of the Blind." 

Edmund Burke said of him: "Few men, blessed vvdth 
the most jDerfect sight, can describe visual objects with 
more spirit and justness than this blind man." John Wes- 
ley regarded his version of the 104th Psalm as " the finest 
in the English language." The closing paragraph of this 
version, which is written throughout in heroic jDentameters, 
will fairly exhibit his style : 

" While this immortal ' spark of heavenly flame ' 
Distends my breast and animates my frame, 
To Thee my ardent jiraises shall be home 
On the fii^t breeze that wakes the blushmg' morn ; 
The latest star shall hear the pleasing sound, 
And nature in full choir shall join around. 
When, full of Thee, my soul excursive flies 
Through earth, air, ocean, or thy regal skies, 
From world to world new wonders still I find. 
And all the Godhead flashes on my mind ; 
When, winged with whirlwinds, vice shall take its flight 
To tlie deep bosom of eternal night. 
To Thee my soul shall endless praises pay: — 
Join, men and angels ! join th' exalted lay ! " 

Dr. Blacklock's "Braes of Ballenden," a popular song, 
has ever been a great favorite with his countrjanen. He 
died, July 7, 1791, of nervous fever, at Edinburgh. An 
edition of his " Poems " was published two years after his 
death. 



JAMES BODEN. 81 

JAMES BODEN. 
1757-1841. 

The Rev. James Bodeist was born at Chester, England, 
April 13, 1757, in the house where Matthew Henry wrote 
his justly-renowned Commentary on the Bible. Under the 
ministry of the Rev. M. J. Armitage, he became, at four- 
teen, a serious Christian, and at sixteen a member of the 
Congregational church, worshipping in an uj^per room, 
Common Hall St., Chester. Full of zeal and devotion, he 
sought the ministry of the Gospel. Four years (1779-1783) 
were spent at Homerton College. In 1784 he was installed 
the pastor of the Congregational church of Hanley, a vil- 
lage of potteries in Staffordshire. In November, 1796, he 
became the successor of the Rev. Josiah Brewer, in the 
pastorate of the Independent church. Queen Street, Shef- 
field. More than forty-two years he served this church 
with great ability and fidelity. At the age of eighty-two 
years (1839) he resigned his charge, and retired to Chester- 
field, in Derbyshire, where, full of peace and joyful hope, 
he passed away, June 4, 1841, in the 85th year of his age, — 
one of the very last survivors of the Founders of the Lon- 
don Missionary Society. He was an eminently godly man, 
and a most useful minister of Christ. 

He contributed to the February number of Tlie Gospel 
Magazine for 1777 the hymn, 

" Ye dying sons of men," 

written to be sung after a charity sermon; and to the Au- 
gust number of the London Exangelical Magazine for 

1798, 

" Bright Source of Everlasting love." 

In the comx)ilation, " A Collection of above Six Hundred 
Hymns, designed as a New Supplement to Dr. AYatts' 
Psalms and Hymns. Doncaster, 1801," he was associated 
with the Rev. Edward Williams, D.D., of Rotherham Col 
6 



82 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

lege. Seven of tlae hymns were from his own pen. The 
compilation, for that period, was one of great merit. 

Among his earlier productions, the following stanzas, be- 
ing part of a hymn contributed to the August number of 
The Gospel Magazine for 1777, fairly exhibit his style : 

' ' High in the shining- coiirts above 
Reigns God, the sovereign King, 
And angels, round his throne of love, 
Sweet hallelujahs sing. 

" He sees where youthful hearts unite, 
And form a social band ; 
And Jesus ever takes delight 
To guide them with his hand. 

"Their conversation and their prayers 
Are music in his ears ; 
His smiles dispel then' gloomy cares, 
And dissipate their fears. 

" Oh! how they scorn these sordid charms 
Which carnal minds pursue ! 
Celestial love their bosom warms 
With bliss forever new. 

" The shining of Jehovah's grace, 
And Jesus' bleeding love, 
Allure them through this wilderness 
To brighter joys above." 



HORATIUS BONAR. 

1808 . 

The Rev. Horatius Bot^ae, D.D., the poet of the mod- 
ern sanctuary, is the son of James Bonar, and was born, 
December 19, 1808, at Edinburgh, Scotland. He comes of 
a godly and clerical ancestry. His grandfather, the Rev. 
John Bonar, was the author of several hymns published in 



HOEATIUS BONAR. 83 

1765. The grandson was educated at tlie High- School, and 
the University, Edinburgh. In the study of theology he 
was a iDupil of the Rev. Dr. Chalmers. In 1837 he was or- 
dained the pastor of the Presbyterian church of Kelso, on 
the Tweed, near the English border, — previously under the 
charge of the Rev. Robert Lundie, whose daughter, Jane 
Catharine, sister of Mary Lundie Duncan, he married. 
Two years after his settlement he began the publication 
and circulation of the famous " Kelso Tracts, " of one of 
which, "Believe and Live," nearly or quite a million of 
copies have been issued. 

In the early days of his ministry, he and his brother. Rev. 
Andrew A. Bonar, now of. Glasgow, were intimately associ- 
ated with that burning and shining light, Robert Murray 
McCheyne, pastor of St. Peter's church, Dundee. They 
were men of like spirit, and Horatius labored at Kelso 
much as McCheyne did in Dundee. The great revival of 
religion, that began at Kilsyth in 1839, spread to Dundee 
and Kelso, and was greatly promoted by the " Tracts " as 
well as the preaching of Horatius Bonar. At the disruption 
of the Church of Scotland in May, 1843, he freely and 
heartily cast in his lot Avith the Free Church, of which he 
has ever since been one of the most ardent and faithful 
supporters. Since 1868 he has been the pastor of the 
Grange, or " Chalmers Memorial," Presbyterian Church of 
Edinburgh. 

The publications of Dr. Bonar are characterized by in- 
tense spirituality and ardent devotion to the cause of 
Christ. " Truth and Error " appeared in 1846; " The Night 
of Weeping," in 1846; " The Coming and Kingdom of the 
Lord Jesus Christ," in 1849 ; " The Morning of Joy," in 
1850 ; " The Blood of the Cross " followed. Then " Man, 
his Religion and his World " (1854) ; " Prophetical Land- 
marks" (1854); "The Desert of Sinai" (1857); "The Land 
of Promise" (1858); "Earth's Thirst and Heaven's Water 
Springs " (1860) ; " God's Way of Peace " (1862) ; " God's 
Way of Holiness" (1864); and, the same year, "The Word 
of Promise," "The Eternal Day," "A Stranger Here," 



84 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Fifty-two Short Sennons for Family Reading " followed. 
'' Light and Truth— Bible Thoughts and Themes " appeared 
in 1868. He has edited for a long period The Journal of 
Prophecy^ and succeeded the Rev. Andrew Cameron as 
editor of The Christian Treasury. He has made numer- 
ous contributions to other religious periodicals. 

He is, however, better known as the author of many of 
the sweetest hymns commonly used in the service of God. 
His hymnological publications are " Songs for the Wilder- 
ness," two series (1843-4); " The Bible Hymn-Book" (1845); 
"Hymns Original and Selected" (1850); "Hymns of Faith 
and Hope," first series (1857), second series (1861), third 
series (1866). In 1852 he published " The New Jerusalem, 
a Hymn of the Olden Time. " Some of his hymns " were 
written in Kelso, some in Edinburgh, some in railway 
trains. No note was taken of the dates of their com- 
position." 

His appearance in the pulpit is " grand, massive, almost 
imposing, but thoroughly genial and tender in every line 
and movement of face and eye." The following stanzas, 
from the third series of his " Hymns of Faith and Hope," 
are quite characteristic of his muse : 

"Upward, where the stars are burning, 
Silent, silent, in their turning 

Round the never-changing pole : 
Upward, where the sky is brightest, 
Upward, where the blue is lightest, 

Lift I now my longing soul. 

' Far above that arch of gladness, 
Far beyond these clouds of sadness, 

Are the many mansions fair ; 
Far from pain and sin and folly, 
In that palace of the holy, — 

I woidd find my mansion there. 

"Where the glory brightly dwelleth. 
Where the new song sweetly swelleth, 

And the discord never comes ; 
Where life's stream is ever laving, 
And the palm is ever waving ; — 

That must be the home of homes." 



JANE CATHARINE [LUNDIE] BONAB. 85 



JANE CATHARINE [LUNDIE] BONAR. 

Mrs. Bojstar is tlie daugliter of tlie late Rev. Robert 
Lundie, in whose delightful manse at Kelso, Scotland, the 
Rev. Matthias Bruen, of New York, found such a pleasant 
and genial home. " I have acquired at Kelso," says Bruen, 
September 22, 1817, " at least one of the kindest friends, 
which, so long as sin is in this world, we can hope God will 
give us to comfort us in our state of iDilgrimage." Mrs. 
Lundie, the excellent mother of Mrs. Bonar, compiled the 
Memoirs of Mr. Bruen; but she is far better known as the 
mother of " Mary Lundie Duncan," whose Memoir, also, she 
so lovingly wrote. From that exquisite story of a lovely 
life may be learned something of the charms of that home, 

' ' Where Tweed flows on in silver sheen, 
And Tiviot feeds her valley green " ; 

where the younger sister, Jane, was born, and passed her 
youthful days. In April, 1832, she was deprived of her 
godly father, and in the autumn, with her widowed mother, 
her elder sister, and brother, she found a home in Edin- 
burgh. In 1835, she was sent to a school in London, and 
found a Idnd friend in Mrs. Evans, the endeared friend of 
her sister Mary. On her return, she was much with her 
sister at the manse in Cleish, until 1840, when Mary died. 
She now became the wife of the Rev. Horatius Bonar, and 
an occupant, as mistress of the manse of Kelso, of the place 
of her birth and infantile life. Here she continued to reside 
until her husband's removal, in 1869, to Edinburgh,— her 
present home. 

Like her gifted sister, Mrs. Bonar not unfrequently gives 
expression to her thoughts in sacred verse. The hymn, 

"Pass away, earthly joy ! " etc., 

first appeared (1843) in " Songs for the Wilderness." It 
found a place, also, two years after, in " The Bible Hymn 
Book," compiled by her husband. 



THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 



JANE BOKTHWICK. 

Miss Jane Borthwick is of Scotcli birth and descent. 
The name of Borthwick is purely Scotcli. Her sister is tlie 
wife of the Rev. Eric J. Findlater, minister of the Free 
Chnrch of Balquhidder, in the Presbytery of Dunblane, of 
a family well known in the annals of the Scotch Church. 
Tlie two sisters early became interested in German hymn- 
ology. Several excellent translations from the German 
were given to the public, with the title of " Hymns from 
the Land of Luther," through the press of Kennedy, Edin- 
burgh, in 1854. Others followed in four series. The whole 
were published together in 1862. Miss Borthwick in 1859 
published, also, her "Thoughts for Thoughtful Hours." 
She has also contributed, under the signature of " H. L. 
L.," frequent poetic articles to "The Family Treasury." 
Her latest work, "Alpine Lyrics: a Selection from the 
Poems of Meta Heusser-Schweizer," appeared in Novem- 
ber, 1874. 

The translations occupy " a somewhat different field from 
the Lyra Germanica," by Miss Winkworth, " dealing mostly 
with hymns of a more modern and less congregational cast, 
and representing several writers whose names do not ap- 
pear in the Lyra Germanica." "A few of" them "may be 
considered as rather imitations than translations, although 
the ideas and structure are too much borrowed to allow 
them to be called original." 

The hymn, " Jesus, Son of Righteousness," is a transla- 
tion of 

" Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit," etc., 

by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1616-1689), of Silesia. 
" A pilgrim and a stranger," is a version of 

" Ich. bin ein Gast auf Ei'den," etc., 

by Paul Gerhardt (1606-1676), of Saxony. " My Jesus, as 
thou wilt," is a version of 

" Mein Jesu! wie du wiUst," etc., 



ANTOINETTE BOUEIGNON. 87 

by Benjamin Sclimolke (1672-1737), also of Silesia. This 
translation was a great favorite with the late Rev. Dr. 
Thomas H. Skinner, of New York, as it is with many 
other devout Christians. " Rejoice, all ye believers," is a 
popular version of 

"Ermuntert euch, ihr Frommen," etc., 

by Laurentius Laurenti (1660-1722), of Holstein. [See Ro- 
SENEOTH, Gerhaedt, Schmolke, Laurenti.] 

The subjoined stanzas are Miss Borthwick's version of 
Spitta's 

" Der Christen Sclimuck und Ordensband," etc. : 

" The Christiau's badge of honor here 
Has ever been the cross ; 
And, when its hidden joys appear, 
He counts it gain, not loss. 

" He bears it meekly,, as is best. 

While struggling here with sin ; 
He wears it not upon his breast, 
Ah ! no ; it is within. 

*' And if it bring him pain or shame. 
He takes it joyfully; 
For well he knows from whom it came, 
And what its end shall be. 

" Only a little while 'tis borne, 
And as a pledge is given 
Of robes of triumph, to be worn 
Forevermore in heaven." 



ANTOINETTE BOURIGNON. 

1616-1680. 

Antoinette Boueignon was a French mystic of the 
seventeenth century. She was the daughter of Jean Bou- 



88 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

rignon and Marguerite Beckwart, of Lisle, Flanders, where 
she was born, January 13, 1616. Her deformity as an in- 
fant was so great as to create an aversion to her, even in the 
minds of her parents. But, with advancing years, she de- 
veloped no little sprightliness of mind. At an early age 
she became fascinated with books of devotion, and w^as 
attracted to a life of celibacy. At twenty, she was prom- 
ised by her parents, in marriage, to a French merchant. To 
escape it, she fled from home, in male disguise, to the village 
of Basseck. Her disguise being discovered, she w^as ex- 
posed to indignities, but was protected by the parish 
priest. By his advice and that of the Archbishop of Cam- 
bray, she returned home. 

Another attempt to give her in marriage, three years 
later, induced her to leave her parents again, and take ref- 
uge at Mons, under the protection of the Archbishop. On 
the occasion of her mother's fatal illness, she once more re- 
turned home, and remained until her father's death, in 1648. 
New suitors now sought her hand and wealth, but she re- 
sisted their importunities, and devoted herself to a single 
life. 

Desirous of doing good with her worldly means, she took 
charge (1653) of a foundling hospital at Lisle. In 1658, she 
joined the order of Augustines. Not long after, with oth- 
ers of the house, she was accused of sortilege, and, in 1662, 
she again left home. Four years were spent at Ghent and 
Malines. Thence, in 1667, she repaired to Amsterdam, 
where, by her numerous tracts and discourses, she soon 
attracted great attention. Renouncing her connection 
with the Church of Rome, she claimed a divine commis- 
sion to found a new^ and pure communion. Among her 
converts w^as Christian de Cordt, a Jansenist priest, who 
purchased, as a retreat for her community, the island of 
Noordtstrandt, in the Holstein, bequeathing it to her at his 
death, in 1669. Thither she retired in 1671, and established 
a printing press, by means of which she issued a large num- 
ber of tracts in French, Dutch, and German. Her opposi- 
tion to the priesthood, and the extravagance of some of 



ANTOINETTE BOURIGNON. 89 

her mystic theories, made her an object of persecution. 
She withdrew in consequence (1676) to Hamburg, and 
then to East Frisland. But, finding no rest, she set out to 
return to Holland. On the way, she was overtaken with a 
fatal disorder, and died, October 30, 1680, at FranMort. 

Her "Works" were published (1686) in nineteen vol- 
umes. Peter Poiret, a Cartesian, one of her admirers, re- 
duced her mysticisms to a systematic form, and published 
them, in 1705, at Frankfort, by the name of " Oeconomiee 
Divinge libri YI." An English translation of one of her 
most imiDortant works, " La Lumiere du Monde " — " The 
Light of the World : a most True Relation of the Pil- 
grimess M. Antonia Bourignon, Travelling towards Eter- 
nity," (London, 1696) — met with a ready sale in Great 
Britain, and gained her adherents even in Scotland. At 
one time, such was the influence of her doctrines, candi- 
dates for the Presb}i;erian ministry were required to de- 
nounce Bourignonism. For twenty years, it was her boast, 
that she had not read a word of the Holy Scriptures. 

The hymn, " Yene's, Jesus ! mon Salutaire," was written at 
an early period of her career (1640), when she renounced 
the world for a religious life. In the original it has five 
double stanzas. It has much of the spirit of the Gospel. 
The translation has been erroneously claimed for Dr. John 
Byrom (1723-1786). John Wesley's translation has eight 
stanzas — the third, sixth, and seventh being usually omit- 
ted. They are as follows : 

" While in this region here below, 
No other good will I pursue ; 
I'll bid this world of noise and show, 
With all its glittering snares, adieu. 

" Wealth, honor, pleasure, and what else 
This short-enduring world can give, 
Tempt as ye will, my soul repels ; 
To Christ alone resolved to live. 

" Thee I can love, and thee alone, 

With pure delight and inward bliss ; 
To know thou tak'st me for thine own, 
Oh ! what a happiness is this ! " 



90 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

HUGH BOURNE. 

1772-1852. 

Hugh BouEisrE was born, April 7, 1772, at Fordhays, 
Stalfordsliii'e, England. At an early day, liis parents, wlio 
were Methodists, removed witli him to Bemersley, in the 
same county. He, too, joined the Methodists at Ridgway, 
in 1799. He had become a timber-merchant, but now gave 
much time to the study of the Bible and theological books. 
In 1801, he began to preach as an evangelist, and three 
years later, in company with William Clowes, he went 
everywhere, preaching the word, throughout the district. 

Having heard, from America, what a gracious work had 
been accomplished there by Camp-Meetings, he introduced 
the sj^stem into Staffordshire. The measure was opposed 
by the Wesleyan Conference, and Bourne, in consequence, 
was expelled (1808), — as was Clowes, in 1810. The year fol- 
lowing, they organized the first Primitive Methodist Society 
at Tunstall. The enterjorise met with favor. Societies mul- 
tiplied. A magazine was started in 1818, and a book-room 
opened in 1821, at Bemersley. In 1822, was published, " A 
Collection of Hymns for Camp-Meetings, Revivals, etc., for 
the Use of the Primitive Methodists. By Hugh Bourne." 
It contained 154 hymns, fifteen of which were from Mr. 
Bourne's pen. Three years later a " Large Hymn Book, 
for the Use of the Primitive Methodists, by Hugh Bourne," 
was issued, containing 636 hymns, nineteen of which are 
attributed to "Bourne," and 148 to "Bourne and Wm. 
Sanders." Mr. Bourne's poetry has little save its fervor 
and piety to commend it. After a laborious and very suc- 
cessful ministry, he died, October 11, 1852, at Bemersley, at 
the age of fourscore years. The following stanzas from his 
pen might be used of himself : 

" Enoch, the seventh, walked with God, 
Tkrough a long course of years ; 
He rested on the Saviour's blood, 
Wliile in this vale of tears. 



SIR JOHN BOWRING. 91 

"While here on earth he hved hy faith, 
And grew in perfect love ; 
By faith he triumphed over death, 
And rose to heaven above. 

"May we, like Enoch, walk with God, 
And in his image grow ; 
Still live by faith m Jesus' blood. 
And speak his praise below." 



SIR JOHN BOWRINa. 

1792-1872. 

Sir John Boweing was a man of eminent abilities, and 
great attainments. As a linguist, an essayist, a poet, a phi- 
lologist, a i^liilosoplier, a magistrate, a parliamentarian, and 
a diplomatist, lie was long and favorably known to tlie Brit- 
ish people. He was of an ancient family of Devonshire, 
who gave their name to the estate of Bowringsleigh, in the 
parish of Alphington, where the son was born, October 17, 
1792. His father was a wool-trader, and a dissenter. His 
studies were conducted under the care of the Rev. Lant 
Carpenter, LL.D., the Unitarian pastor of the Presbyterian 
church of Exeter (1805-1817). 

He entered upon active life as a merchant. Yet such was 
his passion for literature, that he made himself acquainted 
with nearly all the languages of the Continent, and pub- 
lished several treatises, essays, versions of poems, songs, 
and other works, from the Russian, Servian, Polish; Mag- 
yar, Danish, Swedish, German, Frisian, Dutch, Esthonian, 
Spanish, Portuguese, and Icelandic. Among his early pub- 
lications were " Contestacion," etc., " sobre la Esclavitud de 
los Negros," Madrid, 1821 ; " Specimens of the Russian Poets, 
with Biographical and Critical Notices," London, 1821- 
1823; " Details of the Imprisonment, Arrest, and Liberation 
of an Englishman by the Bourbon Government of France " 



92 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

(1822) ; " Batavian Anthology, or Specimens of tlie Dutch 
Poets ; Avitli a History of the Poetical Literature of Hol- 
land," in conjunction with H. S. Yan Dyk (1823); "Peter 
Schlemil, a German Story," a Translation (1823); "Matins 
and Vespers ; with Hymns, and Occasional Devotional 
Pieces" (1823), enlarged (1824); "Ancient Poetry and Ro- 
mances of Spain " (1824) ; " Hymns : as a Sequel to the 
Matins " (1825) ; " Specimens of the Polish Poets," and 
"Servian Popular Poetry" (1827); "Poetry of the Mag- 
yars " (1830), and " Cheskian [Bohemian] Anthology" (1832). 
His later publications were quite numerous, but mostly po- 
litical. 

An affinity of tastes and opinions brought him, in 1822, 
under the personal influence of the noted Jeremy Bentham. 
As "First Editor" of the Westminster Remew from 1824, 
for several years, he advocated Bentham's principles, and 
after his decease (1832), as his executor, he published (1838) 
an edition of his works, in 22 volumes, with a Memoir. He 
travelled in Holland, and elsewhere on the Continent in 
1828, and was employed, for several years, as a Commercial 
Commissioner for Government, in France, Switzerland, Italy, 
Belgium, the ZoUverein, and the Levant. He sat in Parlia- 
ment, 1835-1837, and again, 1841-1849. 

At the close of his Parliamentary career, he was sent 
(1849) to China, as Consul at Canton, and was subsequently 
apxDointed Acting Plenipotentiary and Superintendent of 
Trade in China. Returning to England in 1853, he was 
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1854 was 
Knighted. He now returned to China as Governor, Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and Vice- Admiral of Hong Kong. He 
visited Siam in 1855, and negotiated a Treaty with the two 
kings of the country. Alter his return to England, having 
retired on a pension, in 1859, he published " The Kingdom 
and People of Siam," and " The Philip j)ine Islands. " As 
Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary of the 
Siamese and Hawaiian Kingdoms to the European Govern- 
ments, he concluded Treaties with Holland, Belgium, Spain, 
Switzerland, Italy, and Sweden. In 1861, he was sent to 



SIR JOHN BOWRING. 93 

Italy as a Commissioner of Commerce. He lield tlie posi- 
tion, until liis death, of Magistrate, and Bepnty Lieutenant 
of tlie County of Devon. The last few years of his busy life 
he spent at his seat, near Exeter, where he died, November 
22, 1872, at the age of fourscore years. 

He received the honorary degree of LL.D., from the Uni- 
versity of Groningen, Holland, at an early day. Testimo- 
nials, titles, decorations, and other honors were almost 
showered upon him by the principal Sovereigns and Liter- 
ary Societies of Europe. In the course of his travels he 
had collected not less than 84,000 species of Coleoptera, 
which, before his decease, were presented to the British 
Museum. 

The following hymns from his "Matins and Vespers" 
(1823) and a Sequel to the Matins (1825) are found in many 
collections : 

"How sweetly flowed the gospel's sound," etc., 
"From the recesses of a lowly spirit," etc., 
" Thy will be done ! In devious way," etc., 
" God is love ; his mercy brightens," etc., 
"Watchman! tell us of the night," etc. 

His poetry is quite unequal, and is mostly a reproduction 
of his literary readings. As sacred poetry, it is cold, and 
destitute of that glowing inspiration that characterizes so 
many of the productions of Trinitarian poets. Many who 
have so often sung with delight, — 

" In the cross of Christ I glory," etc., 

may be surprised to learn that its author was then, and to 
the day of his death, a confirmed Unitarian. He has but 
little to say of the adorable Redeemer; but, in common 
with writers of that class, he addresses the Father, as in 
the following specimen : 

"Almighty One! I bend in dust before thee; 

Even so veiled cherubs bend ; — 
In calm and still devotion I adore thee, 

All-wise, all-present Friend ! 
Thou to the earth its emerald robes hast given. 



94 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Or curtained it in snow ; 
And tlie bright sim, and the soft moon in heaven, 
Before thy presence how. 

"A thousand worlds which roll aroirnd us brightly, 

Thee in their orbits bless ; 
Ten thousand suns which shine above us nightly. 

Proclaim thy righteousness. 
Thou didst create the world— 'twas thy proud mandate 

That woke it unto day ; 
And the same power that measured, weighed, and spanned it, 

Shall bid that world decay." 



NICHOLAS BRADY. 

1659-1726. 

The Rev. Dr. Beady was associated witli tlie Poet 
Laureate, Naliuni Tate, in the production of "The ]S"ew 
Version of the Psalms of David" (1696), known as "Tate 
and Brady's Version," that supplanted " The Old Version " 
by Sternhold and Hopldns. He was the son of Major 
Nicholas Brady, who was a grandson of the Right Rev. Hugh 
Brady, the first Protestant Bishop of Meath, Ireland, and 
an officer in the royalist army of Charles I. His mother 
was Martha, the daughter of Luke Gernon, Esq. He was 
born, October 28, 1659, at Bandon, County Cork, where also 
he received his elementary education. Thence he pro- 
ceeded to Westminster School, London, and was elected to 
Christ Church College, Oxford. After a four years' course 
he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated 
A.B., and whence, at a later date, he received the honorary 
degree of D.D. Bishop Wettenhall, of Cork, gave him a 
chaplaincy, and soon after made him a prebend of his 
Cathedral. At the Revolution (1688), he es];)oused the 
cause of the Prince of Orange, and iDreserved Bandon from 
the wrath of James II. At the accession (1689) of William 



MATTHEW BEIDGES. 95 

aad Mary, he was sent to London to seek a redress of griev- 
ances. As a reward for his services, he was api^ointed min- 
ister of St. Catharine Cree, London, and lecturer of St. Mi- 
chael's. He was honored also with a royal chaplaincy. 
The rectory of Holy Trinity, Clapham, Surrey, and the liv- 
ing of Eichmond, were soon after given him. He died May 
20, 1726. 

Though a clergyman, he was addicted to the drama. He 
wrote a play called " The Rape ; or, The Innocent Impos- 
tors," that was acted at the Theatre Royal, 1692. Three 
volumes of his Sermons were published in 1704, 1706, and 
1713. His later years were occupied with a translation of 
Virgil's ^neid, which was published in the last year of 
his life. Three additional volumes of his Sermons were 
published (1738) by his son. [See Nahum Tate.] 



MATTHEW BRIDGES. 

1800 . 

Matthew Beidges is the youngest son of Mr. John 
Bridges, of Wallington House, Surrey. His elder brother, 
the Rev. Charles Bridges, late vicar of Old Merton, is ex- 
tensively and most favorably known as the author of " Tlie 
Christian Ministry," in two volumes ; also, " An Exposi- 
tion of the 119th Psalm," and " An Exposition of the Book 
of Proverbs"; — a truly excellent and most useful man. 

Matthew Bridges was born, July 14, 1800, at " The Fri- 
ars," Maldon, Essex. His writings show a commendable 
spirit of research. In 1825, he produced " The Testimony 
of Profane Antiquity to the Account, given by Moses, of 
Paradise and the Fall of Man." The same year his poetic 
talent was favorably exhibited in " Jerusalem Regained : a 
Poem. " These were followed, in 1828, by " The Roman Em- 
pire under Constantine the Great." He was moved to this 



96 THE POETS OF THE CHTJP.CH. 

work, in part, by tlie desire " to examine the real origin of 
certain papal superstitions, whose antiquity has been so 
often urged against Protestants, with no little triumph 
and presumption." In 1843, he published his "Babbi- 
combe, or Visions of Memory, with other Poems." 

Notwithstanding his previous Protestant proclivities, he 
became enamored of Tractarian doctrines, and, by easy 
gradations, at length, with many scholars of the two Uni- 
versities and others, became, about 1846, a convert to the 
dogmas and pretensions of the Church of Eome. His 
"HjTuns of the Heart" appeared in the following year, 
containing twenty-two of his own hymns. A small book 
of hjTnns, called " The Passion of Jesus," followed in 1852 ; 
" Popular Ancient and Modern Histories," in 1855-6 ; a 
" Report of the Discussion between J. Baylee and Mat- 
thew Bridges," in 1856 ; and " An Earnest Appeal to Evan- 
gelical Episcopalians, etc., on the State of Parties in the 
Anglican Establishment," in 1864. These are his principal 
works. 

Tlie first and last stanzas of his hjTun, entitled "All 
Saints," are given as specimens of his verse : 

" Head of the hosts in glory, 
We joyfully adore thee, — 

Thy Church on earth below, 
Blending with those on high, — 
Where, through the azure sky, 
Thy saints in ecstasy 

Forever glow. 

' ' Angels — archangels ! glorious 
Guards of the Church victorious ! 

Worship the Lamb : 
Crown hun with crowns of light, — 
One of the Three by right, — 
Love, Majesty, and Might ; 

The Great I AM!" 

Many of his hymns were appended to an edition of the 
" Lyra Catholica," joublished (1851) by Edward Dunnigan 
& Brother, New York. 



CHARLES TIMOTHY BROOKS. 97 

CHARLES TIMOTHY BROOKS. 

1813-1883. 

Mr. Brooks was a Unitarian divine, a vigorous wi'iter, an 
industrious author, and an accomplished poet. He was 
born June 20, 1813, at Salem, Mass. While a student at 
Harvard College (where he graduated, 1832), he became, 
under the instructions of the learned Prof. Charles T. C. Fol- 
len, LL.D., an excellent German scholar. After a three 
years' course of study (1832-1835) at the Divinity School in 
Cambridge, Mass., he began to preach in the summer of 1835 
at Nahant, Mass., and successively supplied congregations 
at Bangor and Augusta, Me., at Windsor, Yt., and other 
places, and (June 4, 1837) was ordained the pastor of the 
Unitarian church of IsTewport, R. 1. He married (October, 
1837) Miss Harriet L. Hazard, and resided continuously 
at Newport thereafter. In 1853, he visited India for the 
benefit of his impaired health, and, in the autumn of 1871, 
by reason of the failure of his eyesight and general health, 
he resigned his pastoral charge. 

While a student at the Divinity School, Cambridge, 
he translated from the German the popular patriotic hymn, 

" God bless our native land," etc. 

It was reconstructed (the second stanza being almost wholly 
rewritten) by Rev. John S. Dwight, and published as it now 
appears in the various Compilations. It may, therefore, be 
regarded as a joint production. 

In 1838, he published, anonymously, at Providence, R. I., 
a translation of Schiller's " William Tell "; in 1842, a volume 
of miscellaneous poems from the German ; in 1845, a poem 
delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Cambridge ; 
in 1847, a translation of Schiller's "Homage to the Arts," 
with other pieces; in 1848, " Aquidneck, and other Po- 
ems"; in 1851, a monogram on "Tlie Old Stone Mill" of 
Newport, R. I. ; in 1853, a volume of " German Lyi'ics,"— 
7 



98 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

many of wliicli translations had previously appeared in 
the Literary World; in 1855, a translation of Goethe's 
"Faust"; in 1857, "Songs of the Field and Flood"; in 
1859, " Simplicity of Christ's Teaching," a volume of Ser- 
mons ; in 1863, a translation of Jean Paul Richter's " Ti- 
tan," and (1865) "Hesperus"; in 1867, a translation of 
Schefer's "Layman's Breviary," and (1873) "World's 
Priest." In addition, he was a contributor of numerous 
poems, hymns, odes, and essays, to the periodical press ; 
among the latter, one on " Poetry " (1845) and another on 
"German Hymnology" (1860), both to the CJiristian Ex- 
aminer. He died, June 14, 1883. 
The following stanzas, wath four others, were written in 

1871: 

" Great Lord of all; our Father, God! 

Sweet summer's liymn ascends to thee ; 
Her beauty breatlies thy joy abroad, 

And love's warm tide flows full and free. 

" Through all the realm of earth and air. 
Thy great heart pulses day and night, 
And flower and fountain leap to share 
The glory of thy kindling light. 

" In morn's and evening's twilight glow, 
Thy tender greeting, Lord ! we feel ; 
And midnight heavens, with silent show, 
Thy watchful, patient love reveal." 



PHCEBE HINSDALE BROWN. 
1783-1861. 

The early days of Mrs. Brown gave small promise of lit- 
erary attainments or poetic development. Her parents 
were attached to the Episcopal Church. She was born. 
May 1, 1783, at Canaan Four Corners, N. Y. Her father, 
George Hinsdale, died when she was only ten months old, 



PHCEBE HINSDALE BEOWN. 99 

followed, at the close of the next year, by her widoAved 
mother. Her grandfather, Allen, took charge of the little 
orphan. Mr. and ISIrs. Allen died in her tenth year. In 
this crisis she found a home with her sister (at Claverack, 
N. Y.), whose husband was the keeper of a county prison. 
Here she remained for the next eight years, treated more 
as a servant than as a sister, receiving almost no sympathy, 
and subjected to great tribulation. jN'ot a day's schooling 
was given her the whole time, so that, in her eighteenth 
year, she could not even write her name. At the expira- 
tion of this time, she broke loose from her cruel bondage, 
and attended the district school at Claverack for three 
months, and there she learned to write. 

A kind Providence brought her, in 1801, into the Whit- 
ing family, residing in her native place, where she was 
treated as a daughter, and where, the same year, she 
united with the Church. In 1805, she became the cherished 
wife of ]\Ir. Timothy H. Brown, of East Windsor, Ct., 
where two of her children were born. The remaining two 
were born at Ellington, whither they had removed. Here 
she became familiar with one of the natives of the forest, 
still lingering in the East, of whom she gave an account in 
a Tract, called, " Poor Sarah, or the Indian Woman," pub- 
lished as IN'umber 128, by the American Tract Society, Kew 
York. 

She was greatly attached to her pen, and became a fre- 
quent contributor to the periodical press. Several of her 
contributions appeared in the Religious Intelligencer, pub- 
lished by Deacon Nathan Whiting, at New Haven, Ct. In 
Tlie Pearl, published at Hartford, Ct., appeared her " Tales 
of Real Life," and several of her pieces of poetry. At a 
later date, she published two Siinday- School books, called 
" The Village School," and " The Tree and its Fruits." The 
former of these two volumes described her own experience 
as a school teacher ; the latter illustrated, by a series of 
tales from real life, the evils of gambling. 

The Rev. Charles Hammond, who was for some years a 
member of her family, says : " I have in my possession her 



100 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

autobiography, a manuscript volume of 412 pages, and a 
volume of lier poems, whicli I have collected from her 
manuscripts and newspaper slips, which is nearly as large. 
From her letters and diaries and prose papers yet unpub- 
lished, another manuscript volume of equal size could be 
made, of great value. At the age of seventy, two years 
before her death, she wrote out, in a small volume, a fair 
copy of her numerous hymns and other poetical effusions, 
noting the occasion, time and place of such compositions, 
and the date of their first publication." 

The family removed, in 1818, to Monson, Mass., just over 
the State line, where her brother-in-law, the late Alfred 
Ely, D.D,, was settled in the ministry. Her home, at El- 
lington, had been on the border of a little mountain stream, 
just outside of the village. Leading from the cottage door, 
a well-worn footpath led down, among the trees and elders, 
to a shelving rock on the bank of the brook, where she was 
wont to retire for prayer and meditation. One evening in 
August, 1818, having been rudely interrupted in her retreat, 
she returned to her home, and in vindication of her prac- 
tice, wrote from a full and grieved heart : 

" Yes, — when this toilsome day is gone, 

And night, with banners gray, 
Steals silently the glade along, 

In twilight's soft array, — 
I love to steal awhile away 

From children and from care, 
And spend the hour of setting day 

In humble, grateful prayer." 

Four more stanzas were added, and the paper laid away. 
When Dr. Nettleton was compiling his volume of " Village 
Hymns," he applied, at the suggestion of Dr. Ely, to Mrs. 
Brown, then residing at Monson, for some of her produc- 
tions. This and three others were given him, and inserted 
in that collection. The first stanza was omitted, and the 
second line of what is now the first stanza was altered with 
her consent. It has become a great favorite. The tune, 
" Monson," was composed for it by her son, the Rev. Sam- 



PHGEBE HINSDALE BROWN. IQI 

uel R. Brown, D.D., of Japan,— as was also the tune, 
" Brown," named for her by Mr. W. B. Bradbury. 
The hymn beginning with, 

" O Lord ! thy work revive," 

" was wTitten from the impulse of a full heart, and shown 
to a friend, who begged a copy for private use. It soon 
found its way to the public in the ' Spiritual Songs.' Writ- 
ten at Monson, 1819." Such is her own account of it, 

Mrs. Brown became a widow, in 1854, in her seventy- 
second year. She then found a home with her only son, 
who had returned from China, and had become the pastor 
of the Owasco Outlet Reformed Church, near Auburn, N. 
Y. On his departure (1859) to Japan, she took uj) her 
abode with her daughter Hannah, the wife of Deacon 
Elijah Smith, who, with her only surviving sister, was 
residing at Henry, HI. There she dwelt, serene and happy, 
until her death, October 10, 1861, in the seventy-ninth year 
of her age. 

The following hymn was written by Mrs. Brown, in 1819, 
at Monson, Mass., during a revival season, for a sunrise 
prayer-meeting ; it was included (1832) among Hastings 
and Mason's " Spiritual Songs ": 

' ' How sweet the melting lay, 
Which breaks upon the ear, 
When, at the hour of rising day, 
Christians unite in prayer ! 

"The breezes waft their cries 
Up to Jehovah's throne, — 
He listens to their bursting sighs, 
And sends his blessings down, 

"So Jesus rose to pray, 

Before the morning light, 
Once on the chilling mount did stay 
And wrestle all the night. 

" Glory to God on high 

Who sends his blessings down. 
To rescue souls condemned to die, 
And makes his people one! " 



102 THE POETS OF THE CHTJECH. 

SIMON BROWNE. 
1680-1732. 

Simon Browne wrote in tlie days of Watts, whom he 
greatly revered. He was born, in 1680, at Shepton-Mallet, 
Eng. His early education was pursued at home under the 
care of the Rev, John Gumming, his pastor. He was then 
put under the instruction of the Rev. John Moore, pastor 
of the dissenting church of Bridgewater. He was a dili- 
gent student, and an aj)t scholar ; of a grave aspect, and 
godly life. In his twentieth year he was authorized to 
preach. Soon after, he undertook the pastoral charge of a 
large and important church at Portsmouth. Here he con- 
tinued, honored, useful, and beloved, about fifteen years. 
He was called thence, in 1716, to succeed the Rev. John 
Shower, as x^astor of the Old Jury church, one of the most 
influential dissenting churches in the kingdom. Dr. Watts 
was then a near neighbor, preaching hard by in Bury 
Street. 

Matthew Henry had died two years before, leaving his 
great Commentary unfinished. The First Ei^istle to the 
Corinthians was assigned to and completed by Mr. Browne. 
Besides occasional sermons, he had published, before com- 
ing to London, a considerable volume (1809), entitled, — 
"The true Character of the Real Christian, or Sincere 
Good Man." Of the "Occasional Papers," he wrote Nos. 
4, 10, and 12. He took part in the Salter's Hall Confer- 
ence, held at London early in 1719, and sided, because of 
his zeal for the rights of conscience, against subscription 
to the First Article [Trinitarian] of the Church of England. 
Dr. Watts, the same year, brought out his version, or 
"Imitation of the Psalms of David," and Mr. Browne's 
Hymns followed, the next year (1720). Two years later 
(1722), he published a volume of his sermons (13), highly 
evangelical and well written. They are chiefly on practical 
themes. 



SIMON BEOWNE. 103 

It pleased God, tlie following year (1723), to remove from 
him, by death, a beloved mfe and an only son. A deep 
depression of spirits sncceeded, aggravated, as some have 
said, by having unwittingly killed a foot-pad, by whom he 
was assaulted on a Journey. But this statement is not well 
authenticated. A heavy gloom came over him, resulting 
in a most remarkable malady, which affected him, without 
interruption, to the end of his life. He became a confirmed 
monomaniac. He imagined, as stated by Mr. Atkey in his 
Funeral Sermon, "that Almighty God, by a singular in- 
stance of divine power, had, in a gradual manner, annihi- 
lated in him the thinking substance, and utterly divested 
him of consciousness ; that, though he retained the human 
shape, and the faculty of speaking, in a manner that ap- 
peared to others rational, he had all the while no more no- 
tion of what he said than a parrot. And, very consistently 
with this, he looked upon himself as no longer a moral 
agent, a subject of reward or punishment." 

Nothing could shake this conviction. He ceased to 
preach and pray ; gave up his pastoral charge ; retired to 
Shepton-Mallet, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. 
He dismissed all fear, was calm and even cheerful. All the 
while the masterly character of his mind was more and 
more apparent. So acute a disputant was he, that his per- 
sonal friends were wont to say, "He can reason as if he 
were possessed of two souls." 

He translated some of the ancient Greek and Latin poets 
into English verse ; he composed several school-books for 
children; and compiled a Greek and Latin Dictionary. "A 
fit Rebuke to a ludicrous Infidel," written with great care 
and shrewdness, was published by him in 1731 ; " A Sober 
and Charitable Disquisition concerning the Imi^ortance of 
the Doctrine of the Trinity," a remarkably able and learned 
essay, followed the next year, — also, his " Defence of the 
Religion of Nature, and the Christian Revelation," in reply 
to Tindal, said to be "superior to most, and inferior to 
none," of the Defences, " that have appeared on the same 
subject." 



104 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

For want of proper exercise, his health failed, and he 
died, at the close of the year 1732, of a complication of dis- 
orders. His Hymn Book contains 266 original hymns, truly 
evangelical, and quite superior, in rhythm and diction, to 
the most of what was then current as " sacred lyrics." Pre- 
fixed to the book are twenty Tunes — Treble, Tenor, and 
Bass— four of them of his own composition. In his Pref- 
ace, which is quite valuable for its historical notices, he 
says : 

" The ingenious Mr, Watts has outdone all that went be- 
fore him in the variety of his subjects, the smoothness of 
his verse, and the richness of his fancy. " " The world, I 
hope, will not do me the injury to think that I aim at being 
his rival. These hymns are designed as a Supplement to 
his, not intended to supplant them." " I do not set up for 
a poet. And yet, 'tis no vanity to say, I aim at being more 
poetical than some who have gone before me. I have la- 
bored to make the verse smooth, and the sense obvious and 
clear." " I have more tyed myself to rhyme than any of 
my predecessors, Mr. Barton excepted ; having throughout 
taken care, either to rhyme in couplets, or in every other 
line." He shows a great familiarity with Watts' Psalms 
and Hymns, frequently borrows his phraseology, and, in 
some cases, simj^ly reconstructs his neighbor's production. 
" Sometimes," he says, " I have borrowed my stamina from 
others." 

The 122d hymn in his book,— beginning with, 

"Tlirice happy saints, who dwell above, 
In God's immediate sight ; 
They glow with everlasting love, 
And shine divinely bright," 

has ten stanzas. Five only are retained, in the altered form 
in which alone they have long been used. The following 
stanzas are from the fifth hymn of his third book : 

' ' Hail ! Holy Spirit ! bright immortal Dove ! 
Great Spring of light, of purity and love, 
Proceeduig from the Eather and the Son, 
Distinct from both, and yet with both but one. 



MICHAEL BRUCE. 105 

" Oh. ! shed thine influence and thy power exert ; 
Clear my dark miiid, and thaw my icy heart ; 
Pour on my drowsy soul celestial day, 
And heavenly life to all its powers convey." 



MICHAEL BRUCE. 

1746-1767. 
" ' Whom the Gods love die young,' was said of yore." 

So wrote Lord Byron, quoting Plautus, and lie Menander. 
It is true only in part. It was true, among many others, of 
Henry Kirke White, Robert Murray McCheyne, John Sum- 
merfield, Thomas Spencer, and Michael Bruce. The latter 
had entered only his twenty-second year, when he was 
called to join the heavenly choir. 

Michael was the fifth child of Alexander and Ann Bruce, 
whose eight children all died young — Michael outliving the 
others. The father was an humble weaver. Both the par- 
ents were godly and discreet. Their home was a small 
thatched cottage, with a sashed — not a lattice — window, in 
the little hamlet of Kinneswood, skirted with a circle of 
old ash trees, two miles from Kinross, on the southwestern 
declivity of the Lomond Hills, and on the northeastern 
bank of Loch Leven. It was just the place for a poet. 

Here Michael was born, March 27, 1746, and here he grew 
to early manhood. Few, indeed, were his advantages, but 
he improved them well. At four, he could read ; at six, he 
could write, and write well. In boyhood he was manly — 
in intellectual developments far in advance of his years. 
He was the chaplain of his humble home. In his advanced 
boyhood he was " slenderly made, with a long neck and 
narrow chest; his skin white, and shining; his cheeks 
tinged with red rather than ruddy ; his hair yellowish and 
inclined to curl." The Rev. Thomas Mair, of the Associate 
Synod, was his pastor. 

Poor as he was, he began, in his eleventh year, the study 



106 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

of Latin. In 1762, lie entered the University of Edinburgh. 
During the summer vacation of 1764, he wrote, at home, 
several hymns for the village singing-school. He had pre- 
viously been addicted to versification. The next year, he 
took charge of a school, first at Gairmy Bridge, at £11 per 
annum, and then at Forrest Mill. He entered, also, on the 
study of divinity, and, for one session, enjoyed the tuition 
of Prof. Swanton, of Kinross, in the Theological Hall. But 
his feeble frame soon gave way, and he returned home to 
die. During his illness, as strength permitted, he revised 
and transcribed his hymns, sonnets, and odes, having pre- 
viously purposed to publish them. Full of faith and resig- 
nation he awaited the hour of his departure. He died, 
July 5, 1767, without a struggle. 

After his decease, the manuscript volume of his poems 
was committed, for publication, to his college comrade, 
John Logan. Three years elapsed, and Logan published 
(1770) "Poems on Several Occasions, by Michael Bruce." 
Greatly to the surprise and grief of the father and village 
friends of Bruce, the larger part of the poems were sup- 
pressed. Logan refused to restore the remainder. The 
father died. Then Logan, in 1781, ventured to publish, as 
his own, several poems (among which was an " Ode to the 
Cuckoo "), which were at once recognized by the villagers as 
the production of the youthful Bruce. The hymns they 
had often sung, and the " Ode " had been committed to 
memory as a great favorite. 

Eleven at least of Bruce's hymns were incorporated, on 
the recommendation of a committee, of whom Logan was 
one, by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 
the same year, in the " Translations and Paraphrases, in 
verse, on several Passages of Scripture, to be sung in the 
churches." They are respectively numbered 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, 
23, 31, 38, 53, 58, and the last one of the five appended 
" Hymns." The first three of the eight stanzas of the " Ode 
to the Cuckoo " are subjoined : 

' ' Hail ! beauteous stranger of tlie wood, 
Attendant on the spring ! 



WILLIAM CULLEN BEYANT. 107 

Now heaven repairs thy rural seat, 
And woods thy welcome sing. 

"Soon as the daisy decks the green, 
Thy certain voice we hear : 
Hast thou a star to guide thy path, 
Or mark the rolling year ? 

" Delightful visitant ! with thee 
I hail the time of flowers, 
When heaven is filled with music sweet 
Of bmls among the bowers." 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 

1794-1878. 

Mr. Bryant was born November 3, 1794, in the rural 
town of Cuminington, tlie hill country of Hampshire Co., 
Mass. His father, Peter Bryant, was a physician and 
surgeon of high culture and eminent skill. The education 
of his children he superintended with the utmost care. 
Discerning the early intellectual promise of his son, Will- 
iam Cullen, he took special pains in developing his intel- 
lect and cultivating his poetic taste. This fatherly care and 
loving-kindness were not unappreciated by the dutiful son. 
When, in 1820, the father died, the son appended to his 
"Hymn on Death," written the same year, these with other 
additional lines : 

" Alas ! I little thought that the stern Power, 
Whose fearful praise I sung, would try me thus, 
Before the strain was ended. It must cease — 
For he is in his grave who taught my youth 
The art of verse, and, in the hud of life. 
Offered me to the muses. Oh ! cut off 
Untimely, when thy reason in its strength, 
Ripened by years of toil and studious search 
And watch of Nature's sUent lessons, taught 



100 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Thy hand to practise best the lenient art, 

To which thou gavest thy laborious days, 

And, last, thy life." .... "Rest, therefore, thou, 

Whose early guidance trained my infant steps, — 

Rest in the bosom of God, till the brief sleep 

Of death is over, and a happier life 

Shall dawn to waken thine insensible dust." 

At nine, lie began to rhyme. At ten (1804), one of Ms 
scliool-exercises in verse appeared, in the HampsJiire Ga- 
zette, Northampton, Mass. Two years later (1806), he 
wi'ote verses on " The Solar Eclipse," and on " The Death of 
a Cousin "; and, July, 1807, on the " Drought," and an " Ode 
to Connecticut River." His " Embargo, or Sketches of the 
Times," a well-sustained political " Satire " on President 
Jefferson, in good heroic verse, correct in rhyme and 
rhythm, as well as vigorous in thought, was wi'itten and 
published (1808) in his fourteenth year. The next year 
(1809), it aiDpeared in a second edition, " corrected and en- 
larged, together with the Spanish Revolution and other 
Poems." TJie Monthly Antliology, in a flattering notice, 
augured well for the fame of the young bard. The same 
year he produced an excellent translation of the 19th Can- 
to of the 1st Book of Virgil's ^neid. 

In 1810, he entered the Sophomore class of Williams 
College, of which he took at once the first place. Ha\dng 
graduated in 1813, he entered on the study of law, at Bos- 
ton, Mass., first with Justice Howe, and then with the Hon. 
William Baylies. He was admitted (1815) to the bar,, at 
Plymouth, Mass., and practiced law, one year at Plainfield, 
and nine years at Great Harrington, Mass. His immortal 
" Thanatopsis," so universally admired, was first given to 
the public in the columns of the North American Review , 
for 1817, though it was written (1812) in his eighteenth 
year. The closing lines of this remarkable poem have be- 
come " household words," wherever the English language 
is spoken : 

" So live, that, when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, that moves 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 109 

To tliat mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the qviaiTy slave, at night, 
Scoui'ged to his dungeon ; but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave. 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

Several prose articles were contributed to the North 
American and appeared in later Numbers. At the com- 
mencement of Harvard College, in 1821, he delivered the Phi 
Beta KapiDa Poem — on " The Ages," in Spenserian stanzas, 
— which, with " Thanatojisis, and other Poems," was pub- 
lished the same year, at Cambridge, Mass. Several other 
poems from his pen appeared (1824) in the United States 
Literary Gazette, and Boston WeeMy Remeio. In 1822, 
he married Miss Fairchild, of Great Barrington, where he 
was then residing. 

The law proving less congenial to him than literature, 
for which he had a great passion, he removed to ISTew York 
City in 1825, and became an editor for life, first, of the 
New YorJc Remew and Athenceum Magazine,— 2. monthly, 
which the next year was merged in the United States Re- 
meio and Literary Gazette, — and then (1826) of the Evening 
Post. To this admirable daily, Mr. Bryant gave, for half a 
century, the strength of his vigorous and highly cultivated 
intellect, elevating it to the very front rank of honorable 
and influential journalism. 

He contributed largely to the " Talisman," an annual for 
the years 1827-1830, also (1832) "Medfield," and the 
" Skeleton's Cave," to the " Tales of the Glauber Spa." A 
general collection of his " Poems " was published by Elam 
Bliss, New York, 1832, and reprinted, with an Introduction 
by Washington Irving, in London. He visited Europe in 
1834, 1836, 1845, and 1849,— extending his travels, in the last 
instance, as far as Egypt and Syria. These visits gave oc- 
casion (1850) to his "Letters of a Traveler." Another visit 
to Europe (1857-1858) occasioned his " Letters fi^om Spain 
and Other Countries." A new volume of " Thirty Poems " 



110 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

appeared in 1864. Once more (1867) lie crossed the ocean, 
and in 1872 lie visited Mexico, by tlie way of Cuba. 

Much of his spare time was given to the study of the 
classics, the mature fruit of which appeared in his inimi- 
table poetic versions of Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey, the 
former of which appeared in 1870-1871, and the latter, in 
1871-1872. His " Library of Poetry and Song,"— an ad- 
mirable collection, — was published in 1871. He received 
(1853) the honorary degree of LL.D. from Union College, 
Schenectady, N. Y.; and, in 1870, the degree of H.S.D., 
from the University of the State of New York. 

In 1844, the Nortli American Jtevieio, with careful dis- 
crimination, truly remarked : " His poems are almost per- 
fect of their kind. The fruits of meditation, rather than 
of passion or imagination, and rarely startling with an un- 
expected image or sudden outbreak of feeling, they are 
admirable specimens of what may be called the philoso- 
phy of the soul. They addi-ess the finer instincts of our 
nature with a voice so winning and gentle, they search 
out with such subtle power all in the heart which is true 
and good, that their influence, though quiet, is resistless." 
" It is imiDossible to read them without being morally bene- 
fited ; they purify as well as please ; they develop or en 
courage all the elevated and thoughtful tendencies of the 
mind." 

The desire expressed in the following stanza, written by 
himself, was realized in the autumn of his own life : 

" Wind of the sunny South! Oil, still delay 

In the gay woods and in the golden air, 

Like to a good old age released from care, 
Journeying, in long serenity, away. 
In such a bright, late quiet, would that I 

Might wear out life like thee, 'mid bowers and brooks, 

And, dearer yet, the sunshine of kind looks 
And music of kind voices ever nigh ! 
And, when my last sand twinlded in the glass. 
Pass silently from men, as thou dost pass." [1826.] 

He died, June 12, 1878, in his eighty-f^-^-arth year. 



STEPHEN GEEENLEAF BULFINCH. m 

STEPHEN GREENLEAF BULFINCH. 

1809-1870. 

The Rev. De. BuLFmcH was born, June 18, 1809, at 
Boston, Mass. His father, Cliarles Bulfincli (1763-1844), 
the son of Dr. Thomas Bulfinch, was a gradnate (1781) of 
Harvard College, Mass., and became eminent as an archi- 
tect. He designed the State House and City Hall of Bos- 
ton, and drew the plans for the Capitol of the United 
States, Washington, D. C. The son, because of the father's 
removal (1818) to the Federal City, became, at the age of 
nine years, a resident of Washington, where he prosecuted 
his studies, graduating, in 1827, at Columbian College. He 
studied theology (1827-1830) at the Divinity School, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

He entered on public life as the pastor (1830-1837) of the 
Unitarian Church of Augusta, Ga., and was ordained 
January 9, 1831. He then became a teacher at Pittsburgh, 
Pa. (1837-8), and subsequently (1838) at Washington, D. C, 
still continuing the exercise of his ministry. He was the 
pastor for several years (1845-1852) of the Unitarian Church 
of Nashua, N. H. Thence he removed (1852) to Dorches- 
ter ; and (1865) to East Cambridge, now Boston, where he 
continued to reside until his decease, October 12, 1870. He 
received (1884) the honorary degree of D.D., from his Al- 
ma Mater. 

His literary and poetic taste was frequently developed 
through the press. Besides several sermons and magazine 
articles, he published (1832) his "Contemplations of the 
Saviour : a Series of Extracts from the Gospel History, 
with Reflections and Hymns Original and Selected." Of 
the hymns twenty-eight were original. A volume of his 
" Poems " was published (1834) at Charleston, S. C. " The 
Holy Land and its Inhabitants " followed, in 1834 ; " Lays 
of the Gospel," in 1845 ; " Communion Thoughts," in 1850 ; 
" Palestine and the Hebrew People," in 1853 ; " The Harp 



112 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

and the Cross," in 1857 ; " Honor, or the Slaveholder's Daugh- 
ter," in 1864 ; " Manual of the Evidences of Christianity," 
in 1866 ; and " Studies in the Evidences of Christianity," 
in 1869. 

He contributed six hymns to the "Hymn and Tune 
Book for the Church and the Home." 

His hymns are experimental in character, as in the follow- 
ing, called " The New Life," or " Conversation with Nico- 

demus ": 

"How glorious is the hour 

When first our souls awake, 
Through thy mysterious Spirit's power, 
And of new life partake ! 

" With richer beauty glows 
The world, before so fair; 
Her holy light Religion throws, 
Reflected everywhere. 

*' Amid repentant tears, 

We feel sweet peace within ; 
We know the God of mercy hears, 
And pardons every sin, 

" Born of thy Spirit, Lord! 
Thy Spirit may we share ! 
Deep in our hearts inscribe thy word, 
And place thine image there." 



GEOKGE BURDER. 

1752-1832. 

The Rev. Geoege Burder was the son of Henry Biir- 
der, a worthy deacon of the Independent Church of Fetter- 
Lane, London, residing in Fair Street, Horseley - Do\vn, 
Southwark. His mother (Miss Wildman) was converted 
under the preaching of the Rev. George Whitefield, and 
was an excellent Christian woman. George was born June 
5, 1752. In September f ollomng, the " New Style " was 



GEOEGE BUEDER 113 

adopted, and his birthday was reckoned as May 25th, In 
his tenth year, his mother was taken from him by death. 
He was favored with good educational advantages. To the 
rudiments of an ordinary English education, was added a 
knowledge of the Latin language. He acquired the art of 
drawing, under the instruction of Mr. Isaac Taylor, an 
artist of some eminence. He took lessons, also, in archi- 
tecture, anatomy, and kindred studies, at the Koyal Acad- 
emy, Somerset House, London. 

A thoughtful child, he became serious in early youth. 
He was an attendant at Whitefield's Tabernacle, and there, 
September 17, 1775, he made a profession of religion. Soon 
after, he joined the Evangelical Society, and sought to enter 
the ministry. Greek, Hebrew, and theology were added to 
his j)revious attainments. On a visit to his father's farm 
at Sheriff Hales, he spent a day with the Rev. John W. 
Fletcher, at Madely, who urged him to enter at once on the 
work of preaching the Grospel. He complied ; and, the 
next week, June 17, 1776, he preached to the farm people 
at Moreton. 

Returning to London, he resumed his regular pursuits, 
preaching seldom ; but in the autumn and winter, he 
preached frequently at Lancaster and Ulverstone. In 
March, 1778, he gave up the practice of his art, and devoted 
himself to the gospel-ministry. He was ordained, October 
29, 1778, the pastor of the Independent Church of Lan- 
caster. In this position he continued five years, extending, 
occasionally, his labors over a wide circuit in the North of 
England. He married, in 1781, Miss Sarah Harrison, of 
Newcastle-under-Lyme. Two years afterward, November, 
1783, he became the pastor of the West Orchard Chapel, 
Coventry. Highly honored and useful as well as popular, 
he continued here for twenty years. In labors abundant, 
he took a prominent part in the public enterprises of the 
denomination. He united with others (1795) in the organi- 
zation of the " London Missionary Society," of which, in 
1803, he became the active and efficient Secretary. He took 
charge, also, of the Fetter Lane Church— the home of his 



114 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

childliood, — and edited Tlie EGangelical Magazine. He 
took part also in founding (1799) the " Religious Tract So- 
ciety," and (1804) the " British and Foreign Bible Society." 
He left the editorial chair in 1823, and the Secretaryship 
in 1827, but retained his pastorate until his decease. May 
29, 1832, in the eightieth year of his age. 

In addition to his numerous editorials, he published, 
while at Lancaster and Coventry, a series of "Village 
Tracts," and began, in 1797, to publish his " Yillage Ser- 
mons," which attained great popularity, and were exceed- 
ingly useful. He published, also, " Sea Sermons " (1821), 
and " Cottage Sermons " (1826). Of these three series of 
" Seimons," about a million of copies had been circulated 
in his life-time. To these are to be added, a " Closet Com- 
panion " (first in the form of a Tract, 1784) ; " Notes on 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress " (1786) ; " Evangelical Truth 
Defended " (1788) ; " An Abridgment of Owen on the 
Spirit" (1793) ; " Collins' Weaver's Pocket Book, or Weav- 
ing Spiritualized " (1794) ; " An Abridgment of Owen on 
Justification by Faith" (1797); "The Welsh Indians" 
(1797) ; "The Life of Rev. John Machin" (1799) ; "JS'otes 
on Bunyan's Holy War " (1803) ; " Howel's History of the 
Holy Bible enlarged and improved " (1805) ; " Mather's Es- 
says to do Good, revised and improved " (1807) ; " Mission- 
ary Anecdotes " (1811) ; and " Burnham's Pious Memorials, 
enlarged and improved " (1820). 

The year after his settlement at Coventry, he prepared 
and published (1784), for the use of his own congregation, 
" A Collection of Hymns, from various Authors. Intended 
as a Supplement to Dr. Watts' Hymns and Imitation of 
the Psalms," containing 211 hymns. Three of the hymns 
are credited to his own pen, as follows : 

" Come, ye that know and fear the Lord," etc., 

four of the nine stanzas of which are usually omitted, as 
quite inferior ; 

" Great the joy when Christians meet," etc., 

which first stanza is generally omitted, and in most Col- 
lections the hymn begins, 



RICHAED BUEDSALL. 115 

" Sweet the time, exceeding sweet," etc. 

The first three stanzas of his third hymn follow ; 

" Come, dear Desire of nations! come, 
And aid our feeble tongues ; 
While we thy worthy praise attempt, 
In our unworthy songs. 

" By faith we see, and we adore 
Thy grace, thy power and love ; 
And, sweetly drawn from sense and sin, 
To thee our spirits move. 

' ' Yes, Jesus ! thou art our Desire, 
In thee our wishes meet ; 
Nor can the whole creation's round 
Ajfford a name so sweet." 



EICHARD BURDSALL. 

1735-1824. 

Mr. Burdsall was a useful and very laborious Local 
Preacher, in the Wesleyan Connection, Yorkshire, Eng. 
"Memoirs of the Life of Richard Burdsall, showing the 
Mercy of God in Christ Jesus to a Sinner, and containing 
his Testimony to the Truths he has received : Written by 
himself," aj)peared in 1797. AjDpended to the " Life " was 
the hymn, beginning with, 

" Now Christ he is risen, the serpent's head bruised." 

This stanza has very properly been omitted, and the hymn 
very soon became popular. It underwent some very neces- 
sary modifications, and, in 1799, appeared in a Leeds 
Prayer-Meeting Hymn-Book, nearly in its j)resent form, be- 
ginning with the second stanza, 

" The voice of free grace," etc. 

It seems to have been introduced to tlie American churches 



116 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

by Rev. Josliua Si)aulding, in " The Lord's Songs," com- 
piled by himself, and published (1805) at Salem, Mass. 

Mr. Bnrdsall was born March 14, 1735, at Kirkby-Over- 
blows, Yorkshire, Eng., in humble circumstances. Con- 
verted from the error of his ways in early life, he was filled 
with zeal for the conversion of his perishing fellow-sinners. 
He became a class-leader among the Wesleyans, and so 
continued to the end of life. Not content with this, he 
followed w^hat seemed to be the indications of the Divine 
Will, and became a Local Preacher. In this capacity, he 
made full proof of his ministry. Beginning in his 27th 
year, he continued laboriously, zealously, and effectively, 
for sixty-two years, a faithful preacher of the Gospel. 

The late Thomas Jackson, a distinguished Wesleyan 
minister, says of him : " Mr. Burdsall was, in some respects, 
one of the most remarkable men of his age. He was low 
in stature, and somewhat slender in his make ; his eyes 
were small, and his countenance was marked by a singular 
archness of expression. He was gifted with an uncommon 
power of memory. Sometimes his sermons consisted, to a 
great extent, of texts of Holy Scripture, every one of which 
he used to repeat with verbal accuracy, specifying, at the 
same time, the chapter and verse where they occur. In the 
pulpit, he occasionally said witty things which provoked 
an involuntary smile among his hearers, and sometimes 
even more than a smile ; but his sermons were otherwise 
very impressive. I have wept under his preaching, and, 
after hearing him, have repeatedly gone home to pray." 

He died, at York, February 25, 1824 ; and his son, John, 
in a communication to the July Number of the Wesleyan- 
Metliodist Magazine for 1824, describes him as "a simple, 
sincere, humble, holy, and faithful disciple of Jesus." 
Though "his behavior was occasionally abrupt," and 
" his general conversation bespoke a comparatively unculti- 
vated mind," yet " he was well received wherever he went ; 
and, generally spealdng, was highly esteemed as a consci- 
entious, upright, and indefatigable laborer in the vineyard 
of the Lord." "He came to the end of his glorious course 
in comfort; confidence, and honor." 



RICHAED BURNHAM. 117 

KICHARD BURNHAM. 

1749-1810. 

Iisr tlie notice of the Rev, George Bnrder on a previous 
page, it is stated that he published an edition of " Burn- 
ham's Pious Memorials, enlarged and improved." The au- 
thor of this book was the Rev. Richard Burnham (1711- 
1752), of Guildford, Surrey, England. There his son, Rich- 
ard, was born, 1749, three years before his father's death. 
Owing to this early affliction his education was quite 
neglected, and he grew uj) without any settled religious 
principles. He became passionately addicted to frivolous 
society and vain amusements. 

Having taken up his abode at High Wycombe, Bucking- 
hamshire, he attended the Wesleyan chapel, and was hope- 
fully converted. Subsequently he adoiDted Antinomian 
views, and, ignorant as he was, began to preach with great 
zeal and considerable effect. Not long afterward he be- 
came a convert to Baptist views, and united with a Particu- 
lar Baptist church at Reading. He now removed to Staines, 
Middlesex, on the Thames, about seven miles below Wind- 
sor. Here he planted a small Baptist church. 

On a visit to London (1780) to gather funds for his 
church, crowds of the poorer class were attracted by his 
preaching, and he consented to become their minister. A 
church was gathered at Greenwalk, on the Surrey side of 
London, near Blackfriars' Bridge, whence, two years after- 
ward, they removed to Lincoln's Inn Fields, and, subse- 
quently, to Edward Street, Soho, a division having occuiTed 
in the church, owing to his own misconduct. In 1795, the 
church removed to Grafton Street, where he ministered fif- 
teen years longer. Here he finished his course, October 30, 
1810. The epitai^h on his gravestone in the burial-ground 
of Tottenham Court Road Chapel describes him as "en- 
dowed with an ardent zeal for the Redeemer's interest, an 
acute penetration, and vigor of mind seldom equaled"; 
and affirms that " his ministry was remarkably owned to 



118 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tlio conversion of many." His private cliaracter, however, 
was not in all respects above reproach. 

While at Greenwalk he published, in 1783, " New Hymns 
on Divers Subjects," thoroughly Antinomian. The book 
grew, in subsequent editions, from 141 to 452 hymns. The 
only one of them all that has attained popularity is the 
hymn, 

" Jesus! thou art the sinner's Friend," etc., 

which appeared in his first edition, and is now used in an 
abridged and amended form. A fair specimen of his other 
hymns is subjoined : 

"All the Lord's honored chosen race 
Adopted were by sovereign grace ; 
As viewed in Christ, they ever stood 
The children of the living God. 

"The Father's heart o'erflowed with love, 
And sent down Jesus from above ; 
The Son poured out his precious blood, 
To bring the children back to God. 

* ' Lord ! may we all our sonship know, 
As we by faith to Jesus go ; 
And, in believing, may we prove 
Our Father's rich adopting love." 



JAMES DRUMMOND BURNS. 

1823-1864. 

Mr. BuRisrs was a true Christian and a true poet, — too 
soon called, from toil and suffering, to rest and triumph. 
He was the son of AVilliam Burns, of Edinburgh, Scotland, 
where he was born, February 18, 1823. He was educated 
at the High School, and at the University of Edinburgh. 
He was twenty years old at the disruption of the Church 
of Scotland, and cast in his lot with the Free Church. He 
entered the Theological Hall and enjoyed there the instruc- 
tions of fhe Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers. At the age of 



JAMES DRUMMOND BURNS. 119 

twenty-two (1845) lie became the pastor of the Free Cliurcli 
of Dunblane. 

A predisposition to consumption, aggravated by hard 
study and the rigors of the climate, compelled him, in the 
second year of his pastorate, to pass the winter at Madeira- 
Returning home in 1848, his malady reasserted itself, and 
necessitated his resignation. He now took up his abode in 
Madeira, and made it his home for the next five years. 
Here he wrote " The Vision of Prophecy, and other Poems," 
which he published at Edinburgh, on his return to England, 
in 1854. The same year he took the pastorate of Trinity 
Presbyterian Church, Hampstead, that " airy and delightful 
suburb " of London, of " far-famed salubrity," 

" . . . . courted by the western wind." 

He was then "a tall, loosely-knit man, clad always in 
clerical black, mth the gentlest of manners, a sad resigned 
sort of voice, and with great sweetness of smile, weak and 
ill." His ministry proved very acceptable and useful. He 
was characterized during this period by " a lofty idealism, 
which cheerfully accepted homely realities; and a consum- 
mate scholarship which never disdained the joys and sor- 
rows of the poorest ; a determination to know nothing 
amongst men save Christ crucified, along with a necessity 
to admire the wonders of creation and the glories of art ; 
a width of sympathy and a range of acquirement, which 
would have gladly made acquaintance with all the true and 
all the beautiful, but which, with growing relish, returnee 
evermore to the simplicities of Scripture ; a faith at home 
in the Westminster formulas, a fancy free of the universe ; 
a taste which reveled in the dreamlike descriptions of Ca- 
moens and the mystic intuitions of Wordsworth, but which 
could lay down the favorite volume, in order to visit a re- 
formatory, or plead with anxious eagerness the cause of 
some Christian mission. " His sermons were fraught with 
scholarly elegance, evangelical truth, and practical wisdom, 
" often bright ^ith exquisite beauty." 

A return of alarming pulmonary disease, at the expira- 



120 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tion of ten years (January, 1864), drove Mm to Menton, 
France. The summer found him again at the north, with 
some improvement; but, soon after his return in the au- 
tumn to Menton, he sank under the power of the disease, 
and, in a state of entire resignation and joyful hope in 
Christ, he ceased from suiTering and from life, on the Sab- 
bath, IS'ovember 27, 1864. His greatly attached friend and 
countryman, the late Kev. Dr. James Hamilton, of London, 
published (1868) a highly appreciative " Memoir," bearing 
testimony therein to his eminent spirituality, his consum- 
mate scholarship, his exquisite taste, and his glowing zeal 
for the ti'uth and the souls of his fellow-men. 

His volume of " Poems," containing eighty-eight speci- 
mens, of which twenty-seven are hymns and meditations, 
was reissued in 1858. "The Heavenly Jerusalem" and 
" The Evening Hymn," two small works, were published in 
1856, a,nd another small volume, containing three sermons 
preached at Hampstead, in 1864, the year of his decease. 
A posthumous sermon appeared in 1865. His poetry is 
very sweet and beautiful, expressed in a great variety of 
versification, with an exquisite vein of fancy, and great ten- 
derness. The following stanzas are from his hymn entitled 
"Chastening": 

" O Thou, whose tender feet have trod 
The thorny path of woe ! 
Forbid that I should slight the rod, 
Or faint beneath the blow. 

"My spirit, to its chastening stroke, 
I meekly would resign. 
Nor murmur at the heaviest yoke, 
That tells me I am thine. 

" Give me the spirit of thy trust, 
To suffer as a son, — 
To say, though lying in the dust, 
' My Father's will be done ! ' 

•'So will I bless the hour that sent 
The mercy of the rod, 
And build an altar by the tent 
Where I have met with God." 



JOHN BURTON, SEN. 121 

JOHN BURTON, SEif. 
1773-1822. 

"JoHiS" BuETOis-, of Nottingham," was born February 
26, 1773. He was of a Baptist family, and, at an early age, 
identified himself wltli the Sunday-School work, then in its 
infancy. For the use of the little ones in the School of 
which he was a teacher, he wi'ote a number of small poems 
and divine songs, which were published (in 1802), with the 
title, " The Youth's Monitor, in verse. In a series of lit- 
tle Tales, Emblems, Poems, and Songs, Moral and Divine." 
This was followed by " Hymns for Sunday- Schools, or In- 
centives to Early Piety," in two Parts, — of which, the 
first contained 86, and the second 60, of his hymns. The 
latter Part was published at Nottingham, in 1806. Three 
of his hymns, including 

" Holy Bible, book divine ! " etc., 

appeared in the London Evangelical Magazine^ for 1805. 
The favorite hymn on the " Brevity of Life," 

" Time is winging us away," etc., 

appeared in " Hymns for the Use of Sunday- Schools, Orig- 
inal and Selected," published by the Nottingham Sunday- 
School Union, England, and is there ascribed to " Burton. " 
He married in 1805, and in 1813 removed to Leicester, 
where he enjoyed the ministry and the friendship of that 
eminent divine, the Eev. Robert Hall. " The Young Plan- 
tation, in Yerse," and " The Shrubbery," were his produc- 
tions. At his decease, June 24, 1822, he left, unpublished, 
a volume of hymns designed for village worship. The 
Nottingham Collection was edited chiefiy by himself, and 
the ninth edition (1823) contains not less than forty 
hymns accredited to his pen. Yery few of them have 
any merit, and only the two referred to above are found 
in modern Collections. Among the best of the remainder 
is the following hymn on " The Lord's Day Morning " : 



122 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

' ' The saxired morn is come, 
When, from the silent tomb, 

The Prince of life a conqueror rose : 
Now death, with all his power, 
Can reign o'er him no more : 

Behold ! he triumphs o'er his foes. 

" Hail ! thovi most holy day ! 
When saints unite to pray, 

And raise their voices to the Lord ! 
Let us in concert join. 
And mingle sounds divine, 

And pray, and hear his holy word. 

' ' The morning of our days, 
Thus spent in love and praise. 

Will sweeten much declining hours ; 
Thus may our lives display 
Our love to Wisdom's way, 

And joy, and peace, and heaven be ours." 



JOHN BURTON, JuTT. 

1803 . 

JoHisr BiTETOi^, of Essex, the son of John Burton, of 
Stratford, in Essex, was born there, July 23, 1803. His 
father was a cooper and basket-maker. Both of his par- 
ents were devout members of the Congregational Church. 
From his childhood, the son, also, has lived a life of prayer. 
Until his thirteenth year, he was educated in the grammar- 
school of the town. From his fifteenth year, for ten years, 
he was, most of the time, laid aside by a painful illness. 
On leaving school, he became his father's assistant in busi- 
ness, and, at the father's death, in 1840, his successor. He 
has long been a deacon of the Congregational Church, and 
an effective Sunday- School teacher. 



JOHN BURTON, JUN. 123 

In the intervals of business and illness, Mr, Burton has 
been a diligent student. With an early propensity to ver- 
sification, he began, in his twentieth year, to contribute 
both poetry and prose to the magazines. His first poetic 
contribution appeared in the Supplemental Number of 
the Etiangelical Magazine^ for 1822. In 1824 his hymn, 

" O Thou that hearest prayer ! " etc., 

appeared in the Baptist Magazine, London. His " Scrip- 
ture Characters in Yerse," was published by the " Religious 
Tract Society," about 1840 ; his " One Hundred Original 
Hymns for the Young," in 1850 ; and his " Hymns for Lit- 
tle Children," (54 in number), in 1851. He wrote, also, 
" Charles Murray," and " Conversation on Prayer," published 
by the Tract Society. His principal prose work, " Chris- 
tian Devotedness," was issued in 1860. It was written, 
mostly, before day, during three successive winter seasons. 
His " Book of Psalms in English Verse," " on which he was 
occasionally engaged during 47 years," was published in 
1871. One of his prose works is entitled " War irreconcil- 
able with Christianity." His " Hymns for Little Children," 
has been republished in Philadelphia, with the title, " My 
Own Hymn Book." 

The following stanzas are from a hymn contributed to 
Rogers' " Lyra Britannica " (1866) : 

" Jesus, our Lord ! to thee we raise 
A song of gi-atitude and praise, — 

To thee, our Saviour King : 
Spirit Divine ! thy grace impart, 
Wake every power, warm every heart, 

Redeeming love to sing. 

" Redeeming love ! what theme but this 
Inspires, with ecstasy of bliss. 

The harps before the throne, 
Where angels lead th' enraptured song, 
And ransomed souls the strain prolong, 

With joys on earth unknown." 



124 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

JOHN BYEOM. 

1691-1763. 

Dr. John" Byrom was one of " The Lancashire Worthies," 
celebrated in a recent volume by "Francis Epinasse." He 
was the younger son of Edward Byrom, a linen-di'aper, or 
" warehouse man," of Manchester, — a gentleman " of good 
birth as well as comfortable circumstances." The son was 
born, in 1691, at Kersall, the family home, near Manches- 
ter. His father took special care to give him an excellent 
education. His preparatory course was pursued at the 
Merchant Taylors' School, London. He entered Trinity 
College, Cambridge, July 6, 1708, and graduated, A.B. , 1711, 
and A. M. , 1715. He was chosen, in 1714, a Fellow of his Col- 
lege. The same year, as " John Shadow," he contributed two 
Essays on "Dreaming," Nos. 586 and 593, to The Specta- 
tor. His famous Pastoral, "Colin and Phoebe," ap- 
peared in No. 603. His Fellowship required of him to 
take orders in the Church ; and, as he could not conscien- 
tiously comply, he resigned it in 1716, and repaired to 
Monti^ellier. Prance, to pursue the study of medicine. Here 
he became imbued with the mysticisms of Dr. Henry More, 
Antoinette Bourignon, Madame Guyon, Jacob Behmen, 
and Malebranche. 

Returning to England, he settled in London, as a phy- 
sician. Shortly after, he married Elizabeth, the daughter 
of his uncle, Joseph Byrom, and thereby incurred the dis- 
pleasure of his wealthy kindred. Having invented a sys- 
tem of stenography, an art very highly prized at that day 
by statesmen and others, he became a short-hand teacher. 
His art brought him a handsome income, and the friend- 
ship of many men of quality. It procured him also the 
degree of F. R,. S. On the death, some years later, of his 
elder brother, Edward, he became the owner of the family 
estates, and thenceforward he gave himself to literary pur- 
suits. He made the acquaintance of Charles Wesley, in 



JOHN BYEOM. 125 

1738, and thereby became a true convert to tlie religion of 
the Cross. 

He had a great facility in versification, and his style was 
often quite sprightly. So accustomed was he to use the 
language of poetry, that he always found it the easier way 
of expressing himself on all occasions. The well-known 
fable of " Three Black Crows," from his pen, shows some- 
thing of his humor. He was very much addicted to the epi- 
gram. It was he that wrote the famous epigram on 
" Handel and Bononcini " : 

" Some say, compared to Bononcini, 
That Mynheer Handel 's but a ninny ; 
Others aver, that he to Handel 
Is scarcely fit to hold a candle : 
Strange all this difi'erence should be 
'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee ! " 

He belonged to a family that were " Tories of the To- 
ries," and on the occasion of the visit of the Pretender, 
Charles Edward, to Manchester, in 1745, he made one of 
his court. Being brought into question for it by an officer 
of the army, he gave utterance to the following epigram : 

' ' God bless the King ! — I mean the Faith's Defender ; 
God bless — no harm in blessmg — the Pretender ! 
But who Pretender is, or who is King, — 
God bless us all! — that's quite another thing." 

John Wesley said of his "Poems," that they contain 
" some of the finest sentiments that ever appeared in the 
English tongue, — some of the noblest truths, expressed 
with the utmost energy of language, and the strongest col- 
ors of poetry." In 1749, appeared his "Epistle to a Gen- 
tleman of the Temple"; in 1751, "Enthusiasm, a Poem"; 
in 1755, " The Contest " between Blank Verse and Rhyme. 
He published in the "Philosophical Transactions," 1748, 
an account of his system of stenography. He died, in 
great peace, September 28, 1763. 

After his decease, his "Universal Short Hand" was pub- 
lished in 1767, and, in 1773, bis "Miscellaneous Poems," in 



126 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

two volumes. Two of the Wesleys' liymns, by tlie inad- 
vertence of the editor, are included in this collection. 
They begin with — 

"World! adieu! thou real cheat," 

and 

"Come, Saviour Jesus ! from above." 

They are both found in " Hymns and Sacred Poems, by J. 
and C. Wesley, 1739." He wi'ote the Christmas Carol, be- 
ginning with 

" Chi'Lstiaus ! awake, salute the happy morn." 

The original contains forty-eight lines, heroic measure. 

"The Lord is my Shepherd, my Guardian and Guide," etc., 

is taken from one of his poems, containing ten double 
stanzas. The hymn, 

"My spirit longs for thee," etc., 

is entitled "The Desponding Soul's Wish." He wrote, 
also, an "Answer" to it, in the same peculiar style, the 
first stanza of which is as follows : 

" Cheer up, desponding soul! 
Thy longing, pleased, I see ; 
'Tis part of that great whole. 
Wherewith I longed for thee." 

" The Literary Remains of John Byrom," including his 
Diaries, were published, 1857, by Dr. John Parkinson, for 
the Cheetham Society. They furnish numerous graphic 
illustrations of his Life and Times. 



ROBERT CAMPBELL. 

1868. 

Mr. Campbell is known, in hymnology, only as the 
translator of several Latin hymns from the Breviary and 



THOMAS CAMPBELL. 127 

other sources. He was an advocate of tlie city of Edin- 
burgli, where he died, December 29, 1868. 

He belonged to the Scottish Episcopal Church, and was 
an extreme ritualist. In 1850, at the suggestion and un- 
der the revision of Rev. Dr. Patrick Torry, the Bishop of 
the Episcopal Diocese of St. Andrew's, he compiled a Man- 
ual of Praise, entitled, " Hymns and Anthems for Use in the 
Holy Service of the Church." Some few of the hymns, and 
several of the translations, were from his pen, including 

"Ye choire of New Jerusalem," etc., 
"At the Lamb's high feast we sing," etc. 

He made " the freest use of the previous labors of others," 
in his translations and compilations. The editors of 
" Hymns Ancient and Modern " introduced several of 
them, somewhat modified, into their compilation. "Ye 
choirs of New Jerusalem " is a free translation of Fulbert's 
Latin hymn, 

"Chorus novae Jerusalem," etc. 

" At the Lamb's high feast we sing " is, also, a free trans- 
lation of a Breviary hymn, 

"Ad regias Agni dapes," etc. 



THOMAS CAMPBELL. 

1777-1844. 

Alexander and Maegaeet Campbell, the parents of 
Thomas, were residents of High Street, Glasgow, Scotland. 
There the son was born, July 27, 1777 (the youngest of 
eleven children), in his father's sixty-eighth year. His 
early instructor was David Alison, an eminent teacher. 
In his eleventh year, he wrote verses ; at twelve, he made 
poetic versions of Anacreon, as school exercises. He en- 
tered the University of Glasgow, October, 1791, and gradu- 



128 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ated in May, 1796. He was a proficient in Greek and in 
poetry. His poetical translations of ^schylus, Sopliocles, 
and Aristophanes, were greatly admired. He wrote, also, 
several prize poems. 

Leaving the University, he obtained a tutorship at 
Dounie, Argyleshire, where, among the rugged and wild 
scenery of the north, his passion for song was greatly in- 
vigorated. At the end of a year, he made his way to Edin- 
burgh and studied law for a season. He then gave himself 
to the pursuit of literature. Mundell & Son gave him 
twenty pounds for an abridgment of Bryan Edwards' 
"West Indies." They also published, April 27, 1799, his 
"Pleasures of Hope." It attracted great, and even enthu- 
siastic, admiration, and at once gave him prominence in the 
literary world. 

He visited the Continent, June, 1800, and at Altona, Ger- 
many, met with a number of Irish refugees. This occa- 
sioned his popular ballad, 

" There came to the beach a poor exile of Erin," etc. 

Written in November, 1800, it was published, January 28, 
1801, in The Morning Glironicle. His "poor exile" was 
Anthony McCann. That famous ballad, 

" Ye Mariners of England ! " etc., 

was also written, about the same time, at Altona. His 



"Our bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lowered," etc., 

was occasioned by an incident on the battle-field of Ratis- 
bon, which he visited in the autumn of 1800. 

Returning to England in April, 1801, he visited London, 
where he learned that his father had just died. In June, 
1802, on a visit home, he wrote " Lochiel " and " Hohenlin- 
den." Going back to London, he engaged, the following 
winter, to write " The Annals of Great Britain from the 
Accession of George III. to the Peace of Amiens," as a 
Continuation of Smollett's History of England. An en- 



THOMAS CAMPBELL. 129 

larged edition of liis " Poems " was issued in June, 1803. 
He married, September 10, 1803, his cousin, Matilda Sin- 
clair. A literary pension was conferred on him, October 1, 
1805. 

Necessity compelled him to literary labor. His " Speci- 
mens of the British Poets," published in 1819, occupied 
much of his time for a dozen years. " Gertrude of Wyom- 
ing" appeared in 1809. He visited France in 1814, and 
Germany, in 1820. He then became the editor of the New 
Monthly Magazine^ and removed to London in 1821. 
" The Last Man " was issued in 1823, and " Theodoric," in 
1824. His Lectures on " Greek Poetry " were first printed 
in the Neici Montlily. He projected the " London Univer- 
sity," and labored much to found it. He was chosen in 
1826, and for two more successive years, Lord Rector of 
the University of Glasgow. At the close of 1830, he left 
the New Montlily^ and the following year took charge of 
the Metropolitan Magazine. " The Life of Mrs. Siddons " 
a]3peared in 1834. 

Campbell vrent abroad the same year, and visited Algiers. 
On his return, in 1835, he prepared, and published the fol- 
lowing year, his "Letters from the South." This was fol- 
lowed, in 1837, by "The Scenic Annual." He began, but 
did not complete, an edition of Shakesi^eare. He revisited 
(1841) the German States, and the same year published his 
"Life and Times of Petrarch." In 1842 his "Pilgrim of 
Glencoe " appeared ; and, the next year, an elegant edition 
of his collected " Poems." Although the hymn, 

"When Jordan hushed his waters still," etc., 

does not appear in this edition, its authorship is claimed 
for him by Dr. William Beattie, his biographer. 

The failure of his health compelled a change of climate. 
He found a retreat at Boulogne, France ; and there, with 
the exception of a short visit to London in August, he re- 
sided from July, 1843, until his decease, June 15, 1844. 
His remains were laid to rest, July 3d, in Westminster 
Abbey. 

9 



130 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

He was below the middle stature, of good proportions, 
thongli somewliat slender. He had large deep -blue eyes, 
an aquiline nose, and generally a saturnine expression. 
His hair was dark. His features indicated great sensibil- 
ity, even to fastidiousness. He was fond of recondite 
studies, and had a passion for Greece, her language and 
her arts. He studied mostly at night. He was quick in 
his movements, and highly impulsive. He was given to 
absent-mindedness, was warm-hearted, and of kindly dis- 
position. The following " Lines written in Sickness " show 
something of his more serious style : 

" Oh death ! if there be quiet in thine arms, 

And I must cease — gently, oh. ! gently come 
To me, and let my soul learn no alarms ; 

But strike me, ere a shriek can echo, dumb, 
Senseless and breatliless. — And thou, sickly life i 

If the decree be writ that I must die, 
Do thou be guilty of no needless strife, 

Nor pull me downwards to mortality, 
When it were fitter I should take a flight — 

But whither ? Holy Pity ! hear, oh ! hear ; 
And lift me to some far-off skyey sphere, 

Where I may wander in celestial light : 
Might it be so — then would my spirit fear 

To quit the things I have so loved, when seen — 

The air, the i^leasant sun, the summer green, — 
Knowing how few would shed one kindly tear, 

Or keep in mind that I had ever been." 



JOSEPH DACRE CARLYLE. 

1758-1804. 

This eminent Orientalist was the son of George Carlyle, 
M.D., of Carlisle, Eng., where he was born, June 4, 1758. 
He was educated first at Christchurch, and then at Queen's 
College, Cambridge, graduating, A.B., 1779, A.M., 1782, 
and S.T.B., 1793. He obtained a Fellowship in 1781. 



JOSEPH DACRE CARLYLE. 131 

Wliile in college, lie associated with David Zamio, a native 
of Bagdad, and thus was led to acquire a knowledge of the 
Arabic language, in which he soon became a proficient. 
Losing his Fellowship by his marriage in 1793, he obtained 
church preferment, and was appointed Chancellor of Car- 
lisle, as successor to Rev. Dr. AVilliam Paley. Two years 
later he was made Professor of the Arabic Language in 
Cambridge University. 

AVhen Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, was sent (1799) as 
Ambassador to the Porte, Prof. Carlyle accompanied the 
embassy, to explore the literary treasures in the public 
library of Constantinople. Thence he made excursions into 
the Archipelago, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. He 
returned, in 1801, through Italy and Germany, and was 
presented to the rectory of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In the 
full maturity of his powers, and in the midst of his im- 
portant literary pursuits, he was removed by death, April 
12, 1804. " The urbanity of his manners, the cheerfulness 
of his social life, his great modesty, his active benevolence, 
and his sincere piety, as well as his great learning, j)rocured 
for him the warm love and genuine respect of all who 
knew him, and rendered his death a public calamity." 

Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, who knew him in college, 
described him as " a tall, dark, thin man, of reserved man- 
ners, and recluse habits," and says that he was supposed to 
be "of a noble Scotch origin." 

He published (1792) "Rerum JEgypticarum Annales 
(971-1453) Arab, et Lat." His "Translations of Select 
Pieces of Arabic Poetry " appeared in 1796. On his return 
from the East, he undertook the supervision of an edition 
of the Arabic Bible, which finally was issued in 1811. He 
had made extensive preparations to utilize his linguistic 
acquisitions while in the Orient, by the publication of a 
revised edition of the Greek Testament— a project that was 
cut off by his death. His " Poems, suggested by scenes in 
Asia Minor, Syiia, and Greece," with miscellaneous pieces 
appended, appeared (1805) the year after his decease, edited 
by his sister, Susanna Maria. The hymn, 

" Lord ! wlieu we bend before thy throne," etc., 



132 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

appears in these miscellanies. The following three stanzas 
are from his hymn " On the Lord's Prayer": 

" Father of heaven, whose gracious hand 

Dispenses good in boundless store ! 

May every breath thy praise expand, 

And every heart thy name adore. 

" Great Lord! may all our wakened powers 
To spread thy sway exulting join, 
Till we shall dare to think thee oiirs, 
Aiid thou shalt deign to make us thine. 

" Whate'er thy will, may we display 
Hearts that submit without a sigh ; 
Whate'er thy law, may we obey, 

Like raptured saints, and feel its joy." 



ALICE AND PHCEBE GARY. 

1824-1871. 

The gifted, sisters, Alice and Phoebe Gary, were natives 
of Hamilton Go., Ohio. Their father, Robert Gary (1787- 
1866), when a boy of fifteen years, had removed from Lyme, 
N. H., with his father, Ghristopher, to occupy a land grant, 
on a warrant given to Ghristopher as a Revolutionary 
soldier. The family were originally from Windham, Gonn., 
and descendants of John Gary, a Plymouth Pilgrim of 1630. 

Robert Gary was a man of superior intelligence, of ex- 
cellent moral character, fond of poetry and romance, and 
quite religiously inclined. He married, January 13, 1814, 
Elizabeth Jessup, "blue-eyed and beautiful"; "of su- 
perior intellect, and of good, well-ordered life " ; " fond of 
history, politics, moral essays, biography," and polemic 
divinity. Six daughters and three sons were born to them, 
Alice being the fourth, and Phoebe the sixth child. They 
resided on a picturesque and fertile farm, in the broad and 
beautiful lap of the Miami Valley, about eight miles north 
of Gincinnati. 



ALICE AND PHCEBE CAEY. 133 

painted wooden bnilding, one story and a half in lieiglit, 
facing the west, with a long porch across its north side, 

' ' Low, and little, and black, and old. 
With children many as it can hold." , 

The new house, into which they moved in the autumn of 
1832, was much more roomy and comfortable. Such was 
the "Clovernook," of which the sisters retained such a 
loving and fond remembrance. 

In this "sequestered vale" Alice Gary was born, April 
26, 1820, and Phoebe, September 4, 1824. Their schooling 
was obtained in a low and plain one-story brick building, 
a mile and a quarter from home, reached always on foot. 
The literary treasures of their homestead were a Bible, 
Hymn-Book, "Lewis and Clark's Travels," "Pope's Es- 
says," the "History of the Jews," and "Charlotte Tem- 
ple." The parents had early become Universalists, and 
The Trumpet was a weekly visitor. 

Inheriting a poetic temperament, the two sisters took 
delight, from their childhood, in the rhyming art. Their 
poems were contributed, in the first instance, to Universalist 
periodicals, and Cincinnati Journals ; then to the Ladies' 
Repository, of Boston, and that of Cincinnati ; after- 
wards to Graham'' s Magazine, New York, and the National 
Era, Washington, D. C. These productions were collected, 
and published, by Rev. Rufus W. Griswold, in 1850, at 
Philadelphia, with the title,—" Poems of Alice and Phoebe 
Cary." In the summer of the same year, they visited the 
Eastern States, and met with a cordial reception, forming 
not a few valuable friendships. 

An affair of the heart had broken the health and spirits 
of Alice, and in November, 1850, she came to New York to 
make herself a new home, and enter upon her life-work. 
Phoebe, and a younger sister, Elmina, followed her, in 
April, 1851. They hired rooms in a quiet neighborhood 
(No. 75 W. 13th St.) ; and, five years afterwards, they took 
the cosey house, No. 52 E. 20th St., which they occupied 
to the end of their earthly pilgrimage. They soon sur- 



134 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

rounded themselves with friends of a kindi-ed spirit, and 
their humble home became the centre and loved resort of 
a literary coterie of singular worth. They managed, with 
strict economy, to sustain themselves by their pens, and to 
secure a competence. 

Phoebe Gary, in March, 1852, became a member of the 
Church of the Puritans, under the care of the Rev. George 
B. Cheever, D.D.; and, after the removal of that church 
to a remote neighborhood, she became an attendant of the 
Church of the Strangers, under the care of the Rev. Charles 
F. Deems, D.D. She is described (in the winter of 1853-4, 
her 30th year) as " still young and striking in her appear- 
ance, with keen, merry, black eyes, full of intelligence 
and spirit, a full, well-proportioned figure, and very char- 
acteristic in gesture, aspect, and dress." She was full of 
delicate wit and humor, — the life of every circle in which 
she mingled. "Some one remarked," says a friend, "her 
resemblance to Sappho, as she is kno^n to us by the bust, 
and by descriptions; the olive-broAvn tint, the stature 
rather under-size, the low brow, etc." 

She published, in 1854, her "Poems and Parodies"; 
and, in 1868, her "Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love." In 
connection with her pastor, the Rev. Dr. Deems, she com- 
piled, and published (1869), "Hymns for all Christians"; a 
Manual of Hymns, Spiritual Songs, and Lyiics, one hun- 
dred of each. Her sister, Alice, who for years had been 
declining in health, ceased from labor and from mortal 
life, February 12, 1871. Phoebe keenly felt the severing 
of the cords that bound her to her greatly endeared sister, 
but, for a season, bore up bravely under the affliction. It 
proved, however, too much for her. In the course of a few 
months, nature gave way, and she died, at JSTewport, R. I., 
July 31, 1871, in the forty-seventh year of her age, The 
sisters sleep, side by side, beneath the turf in Greenwood. 

To an inquiring friend, Phoebe Cary wrote, the year be- 
fore her death, in respect to the hymn, by which she is 
everywhere known, 

"One sweetly solemn thought," etc., — 



EDWARD CASWALL. 135 

"The hymn was written eighteen years ago (1852), in 
your house. I composed it in the little back third-story 
bedroom, one Sunday morning, after coming from church." 
It was, doubtless, inspired by the morning sermon. As 
originally written, the measure was quite irregular, and the 
rhythm imperfect. Some slight alterations were needed to 
adapt it to a suitable metrical tune. 

The following stanzas are from one of her last poems, 
entitled, " Waiting the Change ": 

" Thougli some, whose presence once 

Sweet comfort round me shed, 
Here in the body walk no more 

The way that I must tread, 
Not they, but what they were, 

Went to the house of fear ; 
They were the incorruptible, 

They left corruption here. 

"Thank God! for all my loved, 

That, out of pain and care. 
Have safely reached the heavenly heights, 

And stay to meet me there : 
Not these I mourn ; I know 

Then- joy by faith sublime ; — 
But for myself, that still below 

Must wait my appointed time." 



EDWAED CASWALL. 

1814-1878. 

Edward Caswall is an "Oxford Pervert." His father, 
the Rev. R. C. Caswall, was the Vicar of West Lavington, 
Wiltshire, England, and previously Perpetual Curate of 
Yateley, Hampshire. His mother was a niece of the Rt. 
Rev. Thomas Burgess, D.D., Bishop of St. David, and 
afterwards of Salisbury. The father was a descendant of 
Sir George Caswall, Kt., who was comx^romised in the affairs 



136 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

of the South-Sea Company (1720). The family were pos- 
sessed of a considerable estate. The son, Edward, was born, 
July 15, 1814, at Yateley, and was the fourth of nine chil- 
dren. His eldest brother. Rev. Henry Caswall, D.D., ac- 
companied Bishop Chase, of Ohio, in 1829, to the United 
States, was the first graduate of Kenyon College, and was 
afterwards Theological Professor at Lexington, Ky., and 
St. Louis, Mo., — returning to England in 1842, when he pub- 
lished his book on the " Mormons," having in 1839 pub- 
lished his "America and the American Church." He is 
now Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral. 

After a preparatory training at the grammar-schools 
of Chigwell and Marlborough, Edward entered Brasenose 
College, Oxford, in 1832. Previous to his graduation 
(1836), he contributed, to the MetrojpolUcm Magazine^ a 
series of papers, entitled "The Oxonian." His "Art of 
Pluck " (1835), a satire on the idle and wasteful habits of 
the Oxford boys, was very popular, and speedily went 
through eleven editions. His " Sketches of Young Ladies," 
a similar satire, was equally popular. In the summer of 
1835, he visited Italy and other parts of the Continent. 

He remained, as " Hulme Exhibitioner," studying divinity, 
at Oxford, two years, when he was ordained, by Rt. Rev. 
George Henry Law, D.H., Bishop of Bath and Wells (1838) 
a deacon, and (1830) a I3riest. In the meantime, he pub- 
lished "Morals from the Church Yard" (1838), and therein 
showed some tendencies towards Romanism. He served as 
Curate, successively, at Bishop's Norton, near Taunton, at 
Milverton, and at St. Dunstan's in the AVest, London. In 
1840, he became Perpetual Curate of Stratford, near Salis- 
bury. He married (1841) Louisa, the only child of General 
Walker, at Taunton, with whom (1845) he again visited the 
Continent. They returned, quite in love with the pomp of 
the Roman ritual. He had already received, with eager- 
ness, the "Tracts for the Times," and other kindred publi- 
cations. 

As the result, he resigned (March, 1846) his church-liv- 
ing, and published " The Child's Manual," and " Sermons 



EDWARD CASWALL. 137 

on the Seen and Unseen." A visit to the eastern and south- 
ern parts of Ireland, the same year, confirmed him in his 
leanings towards the Papacy. His father died soon after, 
and, in December, he proceeded with his wife to Rome, 
where, in January, 1847, they were both received into the 
Church of Rome. His younger brother, Thomas, Fellow 
of Clare Hall, Cambridge, had taken a similar steiD shortly 
before. 

On his return home, he was occupied, during the follow- 
ing two years, in translating the Breviary Hymns, as pub- 
lished (1849) in his "Lyra Catholica." The "Altar Man- 
ual," translated from the French by Mrs. Caswall, was pub- 
lished about the same time. They removed to Torquay, 
early in the autumn, where Mrs. Caswall became (Septem- 
ber 14, 1849) a victim of the Asiatic Cholera. In December 
he repaired to Dr. Xewman's Oratory at Birmingham, was 
received on probation into the Order, March 29, 1850, and 
finally into the priesthood, September 18, 1852. His fuE 
admission to the Oratory took place, January 18, 1854. 

He published, afterwards : (1855) " Hours at the Altar," a 
translation from the French, and "Verba Verbi ; or, the 
Words of Jesus, arranged in the Order of Time as a Daily 
Companion," etc. ; (1858) " The Masque of Mary, and Other 
Poems," of which forty-nine are Translations ; (1861) " Con- 
fraternity Manual of the Most Precious Blood," etc. ; (1862) 
" Love for Holy Church"; and (1865) "A May Pageant and 
Other Poems." He also assisted his college-friend. Rev. 
Henry Fonnby (who, also, had become a Romanist) in bring- 
ing out his series of hjnnns. He died, January 2, 1878. 

Mr. Caswall's translations are of a high order, and many 
of them are used extensively, both by Protestants and Ro- 
manists. More than thirty of them have been adopted by 
Protestant Compilers, — notably those of " Hymns Ancient 
and Modern " (1861) and " The People's Hymnal " (1867). 
The following stanzas are from his " Masque of Mary": 

"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! arise thee now and shine : 
Put on, put on thy pm-ple robe and diadem divine ; 
Though darkness cover all the earth, yet thou shalt sing for glee; 
For, lo ! tlie glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee. 



138 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! thy streets are paved with gold; 
Thy pearly halls and palaces are glorious to behold ; 
Thy walls of jasper are inlaid with every precious gem ; 
How pure, how lovely, is the sight of our Jerusalem ! 

"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! no tear in thee is known; 
Thy bright and fragrant courts were made for happiness alone ; 
The Lord alone thy Temple is, and calls thee by his name ; 
The Lamb alone is all tlie liffht of om- Jerusalem." 



JOHN CAWOOD. 

1Y75-1852. 

Iisr one of tlie most cliarming portions of Derbj^shire, 
England, the village of Matlock, Jolm Cawood first saw the 
light — March 18, 1775. His parents, Thomas and Ann Ca- 
wood, were farmers on a small scale, and John was trained 
to a life of toil. He had but little schooling, and was 
mainly self-taught. In 1793, he became the man-servant of 
the Rev. Mr. Carsham, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottingham- 
shire. Shortly after, he entered upon a religious life, and 
determined to prepare for the ministry of the Gospel. Un- 
der the tutelage of the Rev. Edward Spencer, of Winkfield, 
Wiltshire, he pursued a classical course, and entered, No- 
vember, 1797, St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, where he was 
favored with the instructions of Rev. Isaac Crouch, Vice- 
Principal. 

At his graduation, he was ordained, December 21, 1800, 
deacon, and, May 31, 1801, priest, having obtained the Curacy 
of Ribbesford and Dowles. In 1814, he was presented to 
the Perpetual Curacy of St. Ann's Chapel of Ease, Bewd- 
ley, Worcestershire. Here he continued until his decease, 
November 7, 1852, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He 
belonged to the evangelical school. 

He seldom appeared in print. To Number 48 of the Brit- 
ish Remew (1825) he contributed an Article, which he after- 
wards expanded and published (1831) in pamphlet form, 



JOHN CENNICK. 139 

with the title, — " Tlie Clinrcli of England and Dissent," pur- 
porting to be an Answer to Rev. J. A. James' " Christian 
Fellowship." It was well thought of by churchmen, and 
commended for "its perspicuity, its mild spirit, and its 
ability." His " Sermons " (1842) are characterized, by Bick- 
ersteth, as " forcible, impressive, and evangelical. " Thirteen 
hymns are ascribed to him, written at various times " for 
the use of his family and Sunday-Schools," which fouhd 
their way into various magazines. His Christmas hymn, 

" Hark! what mean those holy voices," etc., 

is a universal favorite. His interest in the work of Foreign 
Missions is well ex]3ressed in the following hymn, on the 
words " Come over and help us ": 

' ' Hark ! what mean those lamentations, 

Kolling sadly through the sky ? 
'Tis the cry of heathen nations, — 

' Come and help us, or we die ! ' 
Lost and helpless and desponding. 

Wrapt in error's night they lie ; 
To their cries your hearts responding, 

Haste to help them ere they die. 

"Hark! again those lamentations 

Rolling sadly through the sky ; 
Louder cry the heathen nations, — 

' Come and help us, or we die ! ' 
Hear the heathen's sad complaining; 

Christians ! hear their dying cry ; 
And, the love of Christ constraining, 

Join to helj) them ere they die." 



JOHN CENNICK. 

1718-1755. 

To John- Cennick the Christian Church is indebted for 
some of her most cherished hymns. He was one of the 



140 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 



fill promoters, of tlie " Great Revival of the Eighteenth 
Century." 

He was born, December 12, 1718, at Beading, Berkshire. 
His parents were of the Church of England, but his paternal 
grandiDarents were disciples of George Fox, the Quaker. 
They " were once very great clothiers," but lost their all by 
persecution. He was strictly brought up, and, until his 
thirteenth year, was a regular attendant at St. Lawrence 
Church, Reading. He went up to London, not less than 
eight times in two years, seeking fruitlessly an apprentice- 
ship to some trade. He became addicted, in consequence, 
to sight-seeing, song-singing, i^lay-going, card-playing, 
horse-racing, ball-frequenting, and the like. On an Easter 
visit to London, in 1735, he was seriously impressed, as 
he was walking hastily in Cheapside. He became greatly 
distressed on account of his sins, broke off from his sinful 
course, and walked softly before God ; but found no peace 
until September 6, 1737, when he was enabled to trust in 
Christ alone, and find " joy and peace in believing." 

In the winter of 1738-1739, he heard of Mr. Kinchin, of 
the "Holy Club" at Oxford, and set out afoot to make 
his acquaintance. He thus became known to John and 
Charles Wesley, and shortly after, at London, to George 
Whitefield, by all of whom he was heartily welcomed and 
greatly encouraged. In June, 1739, he took charge of one 
of Mr. Wesley's schools for colliers' children, at Kingswood, 
near Bristol, and immediately began to preach the word, as 
occasion offered. At the close of the next year, he sepa- 
rated from the Wesleys on account of their doctrine of 
"Free Grace," and with twenty-four adherents, early in 
1741, organized a new Society. In March, Whitefield re- 
turned from America, and invited Cennick to aid him at 
the Tabernacle, Moorfields, London. His ministry was re- 
ceived with favor, and he labored there Avith great zeal and 
success. He itinerated, also, in IS'orth Wiltshire, in Glouces- 
tershire, in the West of England, and elsewhere, preaching 
daily, and at times six sermons a day. His great labors 



JOHN CENNIOK. 141 

were attended with great success, and followed by much 
l)ersecution, all which he bore with great meekness. 

Cennick was the grandson of a Bohemian refugee, and so 
was very naturally drawn to the Moravian brethren. In 
1Y45, he separated from Whitefield, and joined " Tlie Breth- 
ren," taking with him a large number of his former friends. 
He now devoted himself to the spread of their tenets, and, 
after a short visit to Germany, passed over (1746) to Dublin, 
where, and in the North of Ireland, he labored effectually. 
A second visit to Germany followed, and, in June, 1T4Y, he 
married Miss Jane Bryant, of Clack, Wiltshire, and re- 
turned to the North of Ireland, where the remainder of his 
life, with the exception of occasional visits to London and 
a short preaching excursion in South Wales, was spent. 
He came to London, June 28, 1755, in great feebleness, and 
died there, July 4, 1755, in his thirty-seventh year. 

He "was rather below the middle stature," says Rev. 
Matthew Wilks, "of a fair countenance, but of a fairer 
mind. A good understanding, an open temper, and tender 
heart characterized the man." He was distinguished by 
" unaffected humility, deadness to the world, a life of com- 
munion with God, and a cheerful reliance on a crucified 
Saviour." He is said to have been second only to White- 
iield, as to "success in his labors." His early departure 
was greatly lamented. 

While Cennick was at Kingswood, he occupied his spare 
moments in writing hymns, and, early in 1741, he published, 
at London, 152 " Sacred Hymns for the Children of God, in 
the Days of their Pilgrimage. By J. C"; with a Biographi- 
cal Preface of thirty pages. Charles Wesley says, in July, 
1739, "I corrected Mr. Cennick's hymns for the press." 
This must refer to only a portion of this volume. A sec- 
ond edition was issued the same year. A second Series, 
with the same title. Part I. containing 86 hymns, followed 
by Part II. with 140 hymns, was published in 1742. The 
next year, at Bristol, he brought out his " Sacred Hymns 
for the Use of Religious Societies, Generally composed in 
Dialogues. Part I." His name appears in full on the Title 



142 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Page. Part II. immediately followed ; tlie first has 3S 
hymns ; the second, 66 of his own, and 6 " by Mr. Joseph 
Hnmphreys." In this volume appeared Mr. Humphreys' 
well-known hymn, beginning with 

"Blessed are the sons of God." 

Part III., with the same title, except the clause about Dia- 
logues, was published at London, in 1744. It contains 149 
hymns. At Dublin, in 1746, he published " A Collection 
of Sacred Hymns" (partly original), the fifth edition of 
which (1752) contained that noble and inspiring lyric, be- 
ginning with 

"Lo! he cometh, countless trumpets." 

He published, last of all, in 1754, a volume of " Hymns to 
the honor of Jesus Christ, Composed for such Little Chil- 
dren as desire to be saved and go to Heaven." At his de- 
cease he left many hymns in manuscript, several of which 
were included in the Moravian Hymn-Book of 1789. 
Nearly half of Mr. Whitefield's Collection was of Cen- 
nick's hymns. 

Two volumes of "Discourses on Imjjortant Subjects," 
several of them with hymns attached, from his pen, were 
published in 1753. The Preface is dated, " Dublin, Decem- 
ber 12, 1753." They contain forty sermons, and have often 
been republished as "Village Sermons." They are plain, 
scriptural, and impressive. In 1744, he published "An 
Account of the Conversion of Edward Lee, a Malefactor 
executed in Wales "; also, " A Letter to the Little Children, 
especially to Those who want to Know how to Go to 
Heaven"; and a "Treatise on the Holy Spirit." In 1745, 
he sent forth his " Life," written by himself, and " An Ac- 
count of the late Riot in Exeter." 

In the preface to Part I. of his Second Series of Hymn- 
Books (1742), he says, " I would not have any, who read 
these Hymns, look to find either good Poetry or fine Lan- 
guage, for indeed there is none." It was the truth. The 
few hymns from his pen that are now used, have been con- 



JOHN DAVID CHAMBERS. 143 

siderably modified to fit them for tlie "service of song"; 
and are Imown, at present, almost wholly in these altered 
forms. They can not well be restored. His "Graces before 
and after Meat " have had a wide circulation, and are still 
great favorites in England : 

"grace before meat." 

" Be present at our table, Lord! 
Be here and everywhere adored ; 
Thy creatures bless, and grant that we 
May feast in Paradise with thee." 

"grace after meat." 

" "We bless thee. Lord ! for this our food, 
But more for Jesu's flesh and blood ; 
The Manna to our spirits given, 
The Living Bread sent down from heaven : 
Praise shall our grateful lips employ. 
While life and plenty we enjoy ; 
Till worthy, we adore thy name. 
While banqueting with Chiist, the Lamb." 



JOHN DAVID CHAMBERS. 

Me. Chambers is in full sympathy with the Tractarian 
section of the Church of England. He is a layman, and a 
lawyer. He pursued his education at Oriel College, Ox- 
ford, England, and graduated in 1826. His first publica- 
tions were in the line of his profession : " A Complete Dic- 
tionary of the Law and Practice of the Election of a Mem- 
ber of Parliament" (1837); "A Practical Treatise on the 
Jurisdiction of the High Court of Chancery " (1842) ; and 
"A Review of the Gorham Case" (1850). His studies now 
became more decidedly ecclesiastical, and he brought out, 
in 1819 and onwards, "The Psalter, or Seven Ordinary 
Hours of Sarum": "Aup-Io Saxonica" "A Coin-nanion tc 



144 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Holy Communion, for Clergy or Laity " (3d Ed., 1853); and 
" An Order of Ilouseliold Devotion for a AVeek." 

For some time lie had been preparing, and in 185T pub- 
lished, an extremely beautiful volume, entitled, "Lauda 
Syon : Ancient Latin Hymns of the English and other 
Churches ; Translated into corresponding Metres, by 
John David Chambers, M.A., Recorder of New Sarum. 
London: J. Masters." Eight of these translations are in 
Shipley's " Lyra Messianica," and five in his " Lyra Eucha- 
ristica." He has since published (1860) " The Encheiridion, 
etc., according to Sarum Use, Translated and Arranged " ; 
and he contributed (1867) an Essay to the second Series of 
Shipley's "Church and the World." He edited, also, an 
edition of Dr. Herbert Thorndyke's " Doctrine of the Holy 
Eucharist." The hymn, 

"Let every heart exulting sing-," etc., 

from his " Lauda Syon," is a translation (slightly altered) 
of the old Breviary hymn, 

" Exultet cor praecordiis, " etc. 

The following stanzas are from his translation of the Bre- 
viary hymn, 

"Exite, filial Syon!" etc.: 

' ' O Syon's daug'liters ! haste ; for, lo ! 

The Prince of your salvation. 
Like Solomon, in royal show, 

Comes forth unto his nation : 
A shining purple robe he wears, 
A jeweled crown and sceptre bears. 

*' Let us, before the King of kings, 

Bow down and homage render ; 
With him despise all mortal things. 

And earthly pomji and splendor : 
His members bear his pain and scorn, 
Whose head endured the twisted thoi*n." 



JOHN CHANDLEE. 145 

JOHN CHANDLER. 

1806-1876. 

John Chais'dler was a life-long resident of Witley, 
Surrey, England. His father, Rev. John F, Chandler, was 
the Patron and incumbent of the Vicarage, and there the 
son was born, June 16, 1806. He was educated at Corpus 
Christi College, Oxford, graduating, B. A., in 1827, and M. A., 
in 1830. He was ordained a deacon in 1831, and priest in 
1832. In 1839, he succeeded his father both as Patron 
and as Yicar of Witley, and was afterwards appointed 
Rural Dean. He died, July 1, 1876. 

In 1837, he published his "Hymns of the Primitive 
Church." The originals are mainly from the Breviaries — 
principally, the Paris Breviary. His translations are among 
the most successful in the English tongue. They have 
generally been received with much favor, and a large 
number of them have been included in subsequent Collec- 
tions. In 1812, he published the " Life of William Wyke- 
ham"; and, in 1854, "Horae Sacras : Prayers and Medita- 
tions from the Writings of the Divines of the Anglican 
Church, with an Introduction." In addition, he put into 
print several tracts and sermons. The following stanzas 
are from his version of the Breviary hymn, 

"Nobis Olyinpo redditus," etc. : 

' ' Christ ! who hast prepared a place, 
For us, around thy throne of grace, 
We pray thee, lift our hearts above. 
And draw them with the cords of love. 

" Source of all good! thou, gracious Lord! 
Art our exceeding great reward ; 
How transient is our present pain ' 
How boundless our eternal gain I 

" "With open face and joyful heart, 
We then shall see thee as thou art : 
Our love shall never cease to glow, 
Our praise shall never cease to flow." 
lo 



146 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 



ELIZABETH CODNER. 

Mrs. CoDi^EE is a resident of Weston-super-Mare, Somer 
getsMre, Eng. She "modestly courts obscurity." Conse- 
quently but little is known of her history. She has pub- 
ished the little books, called, " The Missionary Ship," and 
' The Bible in the Kitchen." Her hymn, 

"Lord ! I hear of showers of hlessing," etc., 

appeared in a " Dublin Hymn-Book," and, possibly, was 
inspired by the tidings of the " showers of blessing" with 
which Ireland was visited in 1858. The following stanzas 
are the last three of a companion piece : 

"Can it be that I, an alien, 
Now a child shall ever be ? 
Can it be that, all forgiven, 
Glory is prepared for me — even me ? 

"Yes, for Jesus liveth ever, 

And his blood hath made me free : 
From his love no foe can sever. 
For he gave himself for me — even me. 

"Lord! I thank thee for salvation, 
Grace so mighty and so free ; 
Take my all in consecration, 

Glorify thyself in me — even me." 



CHARLES COFFIN. 

16Y6-1Y49. 

Mr. Coffin was born (1676) at Buzancy, near Mezieres, in 
France. He was educated at the College of Plessis, Paris, 
and early gave evidence of eminent abilities and great at- 
tainments. In lYOl, at the early age of twenty-five years. 



HENEY COLLINS. 147 

he was chosen Vice-Principal of the College of Beau- 
vais, in the University of Paris, and, in 1712, succeeded 
the celebrated Charles RoUin (the Historian), as Principal 
of the College. In 1Y18, he was advanced, as Rector, to the 
highest position on the staff of the University, but relin- 
quished it three years later, and returned to the Principal- 
ship of his College. 

A volume of Latin poems, full of grace and point, from 
his pen, appeared in 1727. He contributed, also, in 1736, 
a considerable number of Latin hjanns, remarkable for 
their pure Latinity and Scripturalness, to the Paris Bre- 
viary. He sympathized, in doctrine, with the Jansenist 
school. His decease occurred June 20, 1749, at Paris. His 
Works, with a glowing eulogy prefixed, appeared in two 
volumes (1755) at Paris. 



HENRY COLLINS. 
Rev. Heney Collins, the author of the hymn beginning 

"Jesus, my Lord, my God, my All ! " 

was educated at Oxford University, and graduated, M. A. , in 
1854. He was ordained a deacon by the Bishop of Exeter ; 
and, not long after, a priest, at Ripon, Yorkshire. In 1857, 
ke left the Church of England, and was received into tiie 
Church of Rome. To justify his course, he published, the 
same year, a tract with the title, — " Difficulties of a Convert 
from the Anglican to the Catholic Church." 

He was received into the Cistercian Order in 1860, and 
the next year he published "The Life of the Rev. 
Father Gentili, Priest of the Order of Charity." Five 
years later (1866), he published " The Spirit and Mission of 
the Cistercian Order : comprising the Life of S. Robert of 
Newminster, and the Life of S. Robert of Knaresborough, 
with an Account of the Foundation of Fountains Abbey." 



148 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

He wrote, also, the hymn, of which the first two stanzas 

follow : 

' ' Jesus, meek and lowly ! 
Saviour, pure and holy ! 
On thy love relying, 
Hear me humble crying. 

"Prince of life and power, 
My salvation's tower ! 
On the cross I view thee, 
Calling sinnei-s to thee." 



WILLIAM BENGO COLLYER. 

1782-1854. 

Few preachers have so early in life acquired, and for so 
long a time retained, as great popularity as William Bengo 
Collyer, D.D., LL.D., F.A.S. He was the only surviving 
child of Mr. Thomas Collyer, and was born at Blackheath 
Hill, Kent, April 14, 1Y82. At eight years of age, he was 
sent to the public school at Lewisham, and, in his thir- 
teenth year, to the school of the Rev. John Fell, at Homer- 
ton. Even then, having become pious at a very tender age, 
he exhorted occasionally in small gatherings. Such were 
his proficiency and promise, that, in his sixteenth year, he 
was admitted to Homerton College, as a divinity student. 
In his third year there he enjoyed the instructions of the 
distinguished Dr. John Pye Smith. 

The Presbyterian Church of Peckham, in Surrey, had 
long been in a declining state, under Arian ministrations. 
The church had been reduced to ten members, and the con- 
gregation to forty or Hitj hearers. Mr. Collyer, a lad of 
eighteen, was invited to supply the pulpit, received a call, 
and, at the expiration of his theological course of study, 
was ordained, December lY, 1801, to the pastorate of the 
church, — the congregation having been increased tenfold. 



WILLIAM BENGO COLLYER. 149 

His jjf eaching attracted crowds of people. Tlie gentry and 
the nobility, as well as " tlie common people, heard liim 
gladly." The royal Dukes of Sussex and Kent frequented 
his humble chapel, and sought his friendship. 

In 1807, he committed to the press a course of " Lectures 
on Scripture Facts," delivered, three years before, to his own 
people, and, the two winters follomng, to delighted crowds 
in London. They were republished (1813) in Boston, Mass. 
At the instance of the Duke of Kent, the University of Ed- 
inburgh conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D., in 
1808, — when he was only twenty-six years old. 

A similar series of Lectures, delivered first from the 
pulpit, appeared, "On ScriiDture Prophecy" (1809); an- 
other, "On Scripture Miracles " (1812) ; another, "On Scrip- 
ture Parables " (1815) ; another, " On Scrix^ture Doctrines " 
(1818) ; another, " On Scripture Duties " (1819) ; and yet 
another, " On Scripture Comparisons " (1823) ; — seven vol- 
umes of Scripture truth, full of the marrow of the GosiDel. 
They were republished (1823) with the title,^" Lectures on 
the Evidences of Divine Revelation, comprising an Exami- 
nation of its Facts, Prophecies, Miracles, Parables, Doc- 
trines, and Duties ; with a Comparison of Christianity." 

He had accustomed himself, as in the case of Watts, 
Doddridge, and others, occasionally to write hymns to 
accompany his sermons. At length he undertook the com- 
pilation of a volume of hymns for general circulation, 
gathered from a large accumulation of materials, and 
edited with great care and much labor. The first three 
thousand copies of the work were destroyed by a confla- 
gration. The book was finally issued in August, 1812, with 
the title, — " Hymns, Partly Collected, and Partly Original, 
Designed as a Supplement to Dr. Watts' Psalms and 
Hymns." It contained 979 hymns of all the standard 
authors, — the hymns of each grouped by themselves, and 
the last 58 from his own pen. 

The next year, October 20, 1813, he married Mary, the 
daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Hawkes, Esq., of Lut- 
tei' worth. The only fruit of the marriage was a daup-hter, 



150 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

born in 1814, and subsequently the wife of Dr. L. Philips. 
Mrs. Collyer died December 23, 1827. 

The Presbyterian congregation worshipping in the com- 
modious building. Cannon Street, London, widely known as 
" Salters' Hall," had, under Arian preaching, been reduced 
to great feebleness. Dr. Collyer, who had long been re- 
garded as the most popular preacher in or about London, 
with the consent of his Peckham people, became, Jan- 
uary 2, 1814, also the pastor of the Salters' Hall people, and 
preached to them regularly every Sabbath afternoon, to 
crowded audiences. He retained this charge until June 19, 
1825. 

He was an inveterate worker, preaching frequently eight 
or ten times a week, and never wearying of the demands 
that were continually made upon him, from all quarters, 
for counsel, as well as for pulpit-service. The chapel at 
Peckham was replaced by a much more commodious build- 
ing, w^hich was dedicated, June 17, 1817, and named Hanover 
Chapel, in honor of his attached friend, the Duke of Sussex, . 
whom in person he resembled. He was too closely occujDied 
to engage much in authorship, save of his Occasional Ser- 
mons, several of which were committed to the press. He 
prepared, also, and published (1837), "An Abridgement of 
the Service of the Church of England, to which is added 
89 Original Hymns"; and (1848) "Hymns for Israel." In 
November, 1846, he was associated with a colleague in the 
pastorate, and was thus, during his last years, considerably 
relieved from responsibility and care. He died, January 9, 
1854. 

His popularity as a preacher scarcely waned to the last, 
except as growing infirmities compelled him to a less 
forcible delivery. It was altogether unprecedented in the 
history of Nonconformity. For at least thirty years he 
had no rival, in any denomination, in the Metropolis. 
" Few equaled and none surpassed him in gracefulness and 
fascination of manner, in simple and persuasive applica- 
tion of truth to the conscience, or in the marvellous rapid- 
ity with, which he collected and arranged his thoughts." 



JOSIAH CONDEE. 151 

Yet lie never compromised tlie trutli, and never pandered 
to the prejudices of princes or of the poi)ulace. 
The hymn, beginning Avith 

" WheD, bending o'er the brink of life," 

appeared in the October (1805) Number of the London 
Evangelical Magazine ; and in the May Number, 1806, was 
published his well-known hymn, 

" Return, O wanderer! return," etc. 

The following hymn is a pleasing specimen of his style : 

" Soft be the gently breathing notes, 
That sing the Saviour's dying love ; 
Soft as the evenmg zephyr floats, 
Soft as the tuneful lyi'es above. 

" Soft as the morning dews descend. 
While the sweet lark exulting soars, 
So soft to your almighty Fr'iend, 
Be every sigh your bosom pours. 

" Pure as the sun's enlivening ray, 
That scatters life and joy abroad ; 
Pure as the lucid car of day 

That wide proclaims its Maker-God, 

" True as the magnet to the pole. 
So pure let your contrition be, — 
So true let all your sorrows roll. 
To him who bled upon the tree." 



JOSIAH CONDEE, 

1Y89-1855. 

JosiAH CoNDEE was the son of a publisher, and became 
himself successively a publisher, an editor, an author, and 
a compiler. He was a thorough Nonconformist, a staunch 



152 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

supporter of dissent, and a man of mark and weight. He 
was the grandson of the Rev. Dr. John Conder (1715-1 Y81), 
the first theological Professor of Homerton College, of 
which Institution, Thomas, the father of Josiah, was the 
Treasurer. The home of Thomas, engraver and bookseller, 
was in Falcon St., Aldersgate, London, where, September 
17, 1789, Josiah, the fourth son and sixth child, was born. 

At the age of five, he lost his right eye, by small-pox, 
for which he had been inoculated. He was sent to Mr. 
Palmer, of Hackney, to be treated with electricity, and re- 
mained with him as a scholar. He made rapid progress in 
study (French and Latin included), but at fifteen he was 
taken into his father's store. His association with books 
and bookish people helped forward his education. His 
first poetic venture, " The Withered Oak," was contributed 
to the AtJienceum ; and, in 1810, he united with the Misses 
Anne and Jane Taylor, Miss Eliza Thomas (subsequently, 
his wife), and others, in publishing a volume of Poems, en- 
titled, "The Associate Minstrels." A second edition was 
published (1812), in which appeared his " Reverie," one of 
his best poems. The same year he contributed three hymns 
to Dr. Collyer's Collection, one of them a version of the 
23d Psalm. 

Two years later (1814), he became the proprietor, pub- 
lisher, and editor, of the Eclectic Review, founded (1805) by 
Adam Clarke, Robert Hall, John Foster, and their asso- 
ciates. He was thus brought into correspondence and in- 
timate relations with some of the most powerful writers of 
the age. He married (1815) Miss Eliza Thomas, herself a 
gifted poet, and a granddaughter (maternally) of Rou- 
biliac, the sculptor. He issued (1818) two volumes "On 
Protestant ISTonconformity," and an additional volume, the 
next year. 

Having become addicted to village-preaching, he pub- 
lished, in 1822, " The Village Lecturer : Original Discourses 
for Village Congregations." In 1824, he published "The 
Star in the East ; with other Poems." A part of the first 
poem had been published in 1812. The book included 



JOSIAH CONDER 153 

"Religions, Domestic, and Miscellaneous Poems." During 
tlie next seven years he was laboriously occupied in editing 
tlie " Modern Traveller " (an excellent compilation of tlie 
works of recent travellers), in 33 volumes, several of wliich 
were written by himself (1830-1831). In conjunction with 
Mr. J. M. Hare, he started (1832) Tlie Patriot, a London 
Weekly, with which he was connected thenceforth as long 
as he lived. 

He published, also, " The Law of the Sabbath " (1830) ; 
a " History of Italy," a " Dictionary of Ancient and Modern 
Geography," and " The Epistle to the Hebrews ; a new 
Translation" (1834); "The Choir and the Oratory; or, 
Praise and Prayer " (1837) ; " Analytical and Comparative 
View of all Religions" (1838); " Literary History of the 
New Testament " (1845) ; " The Harmony of History with 
Prophecy: an Exposition of the Apocalypse" (1849) ; and 
" The Poet of the Sanctuary " (1850). He was occupied in 
correcting the last proof-sheets of his " Hymns of Praise, 
Prayer, and Devout Meditation," when (December 27, 1855) 
his work was interrupted by death, which overtook him at 
his house in St. John's Wood, London. The work was is- 
sued early in 1856, by his son, the Rev. Eustace R. Conder. 

In connection with a suiDervising committee appointed 
by the 'Congregational Union of England and Wales (May, 
1833), he prepared and published (1836), " The Congrega- 
tional Hymn-Book : A SupiDlement to Dr. Watts' Psalms 
and Hymns," containing sixty- two of his own hymns. 
Great liberty was taken with the text, resulting very prop- 
erly in great dissatisfaction. A new Compilation was or- 
dered (1855) before he died. In 1851, he produced a revised 
edition of Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns, in which, also, 
with similar license, he attempted to correct and improve 
" The Poet of the Sanctuary." 

During the greater part of his business life, Mr. Conder 
was much perplexed by pecuniary embarrassments, the 
effect of which continually ai)pears in his devotional i3oetry. 
The hymn, 

" O thou God, who hearest prayer," etc., 



154 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

was written (1820), when lie was suffering from a fall from 
a horse. The following stanzas were evidently written 
under the pressure of worldly straits : 

^ * ' When anxious thoughts the bosom fill, 

And skies look dark above, 
How sweet, reposing on his will. 

To feel that God is Love! 
To him our mean affairs 

Are most minutely known ; 
He weighs the burden of our cares, 

And numbers every groan. 

" Wlien fails each earthly confidence, 

And friends gi'ow cool and strange, 
I rest on thine omnipotence. 

On Love that can not change : 
This trust can ne'er delude ; 

Thy goodness is most wise ; 
And in thy bounteous plenitude 

My wealth, my portion lies." 



RUSSELL STURGIS COOK. 

1811-1864. 

As a counterpart of Charlotte Elliott's very popular and 
useful hymn, 

"Just as I am, without one plea," etc., 
the hymn, 

" Just as thou art — ^without one trace," etc., 

has found its way into many recent Books of Praise. It 
first appeared in the American Messenger (a monthly 
paper, issued by the American Tract Society, New York), 
for March, 1850. Its author, the Rev. Russell S. Cook, was, 
at the time, one of the Secretaries of the Society. 

He was born, March 6, 1811, at I^ew Marlboro, Mass., 
and was favored with good advantages of education. At a 



EUSSELL STUEGIS COOK. 155 

suitable age, he began tlie study of law at Syi-acuse, N. Y., 
but, having become deeply interested in religion, he aban- 
doned the law for the ministry. In 1832, he entered the 
Junior Class of the Theological Seminary at Auburn, N. Y. 
He finished his conrse of study in 1831, married a daughter 
of the Rev. Henry Mills, D.D. (one of the Seminary Pro- 
fessors), and was ordained, January 13, 183Y, pastor of the 
Congregational Church of Lanesborough, Mass. At the ex- 
piration of a year, the loss of voice by bronchial disease 
compelled him to resign his charge. He then became an 
Agent of the American Tract Society, ISTew York, and at 
the Annual Meeting in May, 1839, he was chosen one of its 
Corresponding Secretaries. Mainly through his agency, 
the Colportage Dep)artment of the Society was organized 
in 1811, to which he devoted himself, as " Secretary of Col- 
portage.' ' 

In the advocacy of this work, he started, in 1843, the 
American Messenger, a monthly paper, of which he be- 
came the editor. Much of his time, for years, was given to 
the work of journeying from city to city, and in attendance 
on ecclesiastical and other public meetings, all over the 
United States. He made free use, also, of the religious 
press, in urging the claims of the cause. He visited Europe 
in 1853, and presented it, with success, to the British pub- 
lic. A second time, July, 1856, he was compelled to go 
abroad, in broken health, and made extensive inquiries in 
relation to the observance of the Sabbath in the Old World. 
At Geneva, he married a daughter of the Hev. Dr. Csesar 
Malan. Three wives had successively been taken from him 
by death. His fourth wife survived him. He resigned 
(May, 185T) the Secretaryship of the Tract Society, and on 
his return to America, in the autumn, was appointed Secre- 
tary of the New York Sabbath Committee, and for nearly 
six years did good service in the cause, as appears from the 
" Occasional Papers" published by the Committee. In the 
spring of 1863, he labored assiduously in the organization 
of the "Christian Commission," lost his health, visited 
Florida the next winter, and then the sea-coast of Maine, 



156 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

but continued to fail. He resigned liis post in May, 1864 
and retired to Pleasant Valley, New York, where lie died 
September 4, 1864. 



THOMAS COTTERILL. 

1779-1823. 

Mr. Cotterill was a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land, — of excellent reputation and of precious memory. He 
was the second son of a wool-stapler, residing at Cannock, 
Eng., where he was born, December 1, 1779. He pursued 
his elementary studies at the grammar-school in Birming- 
ham, and his collegiate course at St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge University. Here his most intimate companion and 
dearest friend was Henry Martyn. Their friendship began 
before their conversion. Together they attended the minis- 
trations of Charles Simeon, at Trinity Church, and about 
the same time they experienced the saving grace of the 
Gospel. 

Mr. Cotterill graduated in 1801, and, a year and a half 
afterwards, was ordained to the curacy of Tutbury. He 
devoted himself to the spiritual interests of his charge, 
particularly the children of the operatives, whom he taught 
to sing. In July, 1805, he obtained the Pei'petual Cura,cy 
of Lane End, a populous village in the Staffordshire Pot- 
teries. He found his charge quite ignorant and careless, 
but soon began to see the most cheering results of his un- 
wearying exertions for their good. He married in 1808, 
and continued his godly labors at Lane End, adding thereto 
the care of a small school, until 1817, when he obtained 
the Perpetual Curacy of St. Paul's, Sheffield. 

In his new charge, his labors were no less assiduous, and 
the results no less happy. Several hours daily were devoted 
to his puj^ils, and all the remaining hours that he could 
command were given to his parochial duties. After a min- 



THOMAS COTTEEILL. 157 

istry of six years, during which he greatly endeared him- 
self, not only to his parishioners, but to the whole town, as 
a laborious, faithful, and affectionate pastor, and as an 
eloquent, public-spirited, and self-sacrificing advocate of 
the truth and of every good work, he yielded to the ravages 
of disease, and died December 29, 1823, in great peace and 
full assurance of hope. He left a wife and live children to 
mourn his loss. Such was the grief at his deiDarture, that 
the whole parish put on mourning apparel on the occasion. 
He was a man of great purity of character, s^v^eetness of 
temper, and unbounded charity, combined with strength 
of understanding and soundness of principle. He was 
thoroughly evangelical, and full of zeal for the conversion 
of sinners, at home and abroad. 

Soon after his removal to Lane End, he compiled a book 
of 170 liymns for the use of his parishioners. Seven 
editions were issued before his removal to Sheffield. At 
the latter place he found James Montgomery, an old resi- 
dent, and eight years his senior. They were Idndred 
spirits, and si3eedily became warmly attached to each other. 
Montgomery assisted him in the preparation of a new and 
enlarged edition (1819) of his Hymn-Book. " Good Mr. 
Cotterill and I bestowed a great deal of labor and care," 
said Montgomery, " on the compilation of that book, — clip- 
ping, interlining, and remodeling hymns of all sorts, as we 
thought we could correct the sentiment, or improve the ex- 
pression." And yet Montgomery could not bear to have 
any such liberty taken with his o^vn hymns ! The book 
contained 150 Psalms and 367 Hymns. 

Great opposition was made, by the non-evangelical por- 
tion of "the congregation, to the introduction of the new 
book. It was carried to the Consistory Court, and settled 
by the mediation of the Archbishop. Cotterill and Mont- 
gomery revised it under the supervision of his Grace, and 
the opposition subsided. The hymns, in the new edition, 
were reduced to 146, and the book was adopted by the 
Sheffield churches and others in the neighborhood. 

The edition of 1819 contained about fifty of Mont- 



158 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

gomery's Psalms and Hymns, and thirty-two from Cotter- 
ill's pen. It is worthy of remark, that Montgomery's well- 
known hymn, 

" Friend after friend departs," etc., 

was written on the occasion of Mr. Cotterill's decease. The 
following stanzas fairly exhibit Cotterill's style : 

" Lord! cause tliy face on us to shine. 
Give us thy peace, and seal us thine ; 
Teach us to prize the means of grace, 
And love thine earthly dwelling-place ; 
May we in truth our sins confess, 
Worship the Lord in holiness. 
And all thy power and glory see 
Within thy hallowed sanctuary. 

O King of Salem, Prince of peace ! 
Bid strife among thy subjects cease : 
One is our faith, and one our Lord; 
One body, spirit, hope, reward, 
One God and Father of us all. 
On whom thy church and people call ; 
Oh ! may we one communion be. 
One with each other and with thee." 



WILLIAM COWPER. 

1731-1800. 

For many precious lyrics, the Christian world is indebted 
to William Cowper, the author of " The Task," and one 
of the most gifted of the British poets. His father, the 
Rev. John Cowper, D.D., chaplain to George II., was the 
son of Spencer Cow]^)er, one of the Judges of the Court of 
Common Pleas, and the nephew of William, the first Earl 
Cowper and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. The 
poet's father had, also, a second brother, Ashley, and an 
only sister, Judith. Ashley Cowper had three daughters. 



WILLIAM COWPER. 159 

one of whom, Theodora Jane, but for her father's dissent, 
would have been the poet's wife. Another daughter, 
Harriet, married Sir Robert Hesketh, and is the " Lady 
Ilesketh " of the poet's correspondence. His father's sister, 
Judith, married CoL Martin Madan, and was the mother of 
the Rev. ]\iartin Madan, of London, whose collection of 
Hymns (1T60) was quite popular among the Evangelicals of 
that period. Her daughter. Miss Madan, an endeared cor- 
respondent of the poet, married her cousin. Major William 
Cowper, the only son of her uncle William. 

William Cow^^er, the poet, was born, November 15, 1Y31, 
at Great Berkhampstead, of which parish his father was 
the highly-respected Rector. His mother was Anne, daugh- 
ter of Roger Donne, Esq., of Ludham Hall, Norfolkshire, 
and was a descendant, by four separate lines, of Henry III. 
This fact gives force to those memorable lines that were in- 
spired in after years by a sight of his excellent mother's 
portrait : 

"My boast is not that I deduce my birth. 
From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth ; 
But higher far my proud pretensions rise, — 
The son of parents passed into the skies." 

She was born in I'TOS, and died in 1Y3Y, when William was 
only six years old : a lovely. Christian woman, 

. ..." in early years bereft of life, 
The best of mothers, and the kindest wife ; 
Who neither knew nor practiced any art, 
Secure in aU she wished — her husband's heart." 

At his mother's death, he was sent to Dr. Pitman's school, 
in the hamlet of Market Street, eight or ten miles northeast 
from home. Here he remained two years, when, on account 
ot an alarming affection of his eyes, he was placed under 
the care of an eminent female oculist in London. In his 
tenth year, he was sent to Westminster school, 

" When Nichol swung the birch and twined the bays." 

During his pupilage here of eight years, he gained that 



160 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

perfection in Greek, that, in later days, made him so skil 
f ul an interpreter of Homer. But his spiritual training was 
sadly neglected in a school, where he was taught 

" much mytliologic stuff, 

But sound I'eligion sparingly enough " : — 
' ' No nourishment to feed his growing mind, 
But conjugated verbs, and nouns declined." 

He was destined for the law, with ample promise, through 
family connections, of brilliant success. Accordingly, in 
1749, he was articled to Mr. Chapman, a solicitor, and be- 
came a member of his household. Edward Thurlow, after- 
wards Lord Chancellor, was his associate in study at Lin- 
coln's Inn. Much of his spare time and the most of his 
Sundays he sjient, with Thurlow, at his uncle Ashley Cow- 
per's, in Southampton Row, in the society of his fair cousins. 

Three years later he took chambers in the Middle Temple, 
and, June 14, 1754, Avas admitted to the bar. In 1756, he 
was deprived of his father by death. Appointed Commis- 
sioner of Banlvi'upts, in 1759, he purchased Chambers in the 
Inner Temple. Twelve years he spent among the Templars, 
whom he describes as "citizen courtiers," — "beaux, vdts, 
poets, critics, and every character in the gay world." He 
seems to have led all this while an idle sort of life, con- 
tributing now and then a brief article to a magazine, occa- 
sionally composing for amusement a few verses in the form 
of a translation or as an ode on some fanciful subject, but 
giving no great attention to his profession. 

The reading clerkship, and the clerkship of the Commit- 
tees, of the House of Lords, became vacant in 1703. They 
were at the disposal of his cousin. Major William Cowper, 
and were offered to the barrister. He accepted them at 
once ; but, on reflection, was so overpowered by extreme and 
morbid difhdence, as to relinquish the two offices in favor 
of the less lucrative clerkship of the journals. It was nec- 
essary for him to pass an examination, for which he began 
preparation, but even this overcame him ; his reason was 
overthrown, and several suicidal attempts, happily frus- 



WILLIAM COWPER. 161 

Asylum of tlie accomplished Dr. Nathaniel Cotton, at St. 
Alban's. 

Under the judicious treatment of Dr. Cotton, he emerged, 
at the end of eight months, fi'om the deep gloom of despair 
and horror, into the light and liberty of the Gospel. His 
reason was restored, and he began a new life. His stay at 
the Asylum was prolonged until June, 1Y65, when he re- 
moved to Huntingdon, to be near his brother John, then in 
the University of Cambridge. Here he casually fonned an 
acquaintance \vith the family of the Rev. Morley Unwin, 
teacher of a classical school. They were greatly attracted 
by his "most intelligent and engaging countenance," his 
"well-proportioned figure," and his "elegant manners." 
They received him as a boarder, and made him one of their 
family. To this period is to be referred the composition of 
that sweet hymn, 

"Far from the world, O Lord ! I iiee," etc. 

Mr. Unwin died suddenly, in July, 1Y67. The Rev. John 
Newton was, at this time. Curate of Olney. At his sugges- 
tion, on the occasion of a visit of sympathy, Mrs. Unwin, 
with her son and daughter, removed to Olney, and Cowper 
accompanied them. They took a house, the garden of 
which was separated from Mr. Newton's only by a wall, 
through which a gateway gave them easy communication. 
Here, from September, 1T67, until November, 1Y86, Cowj^er 
found a delightful home. 

His only brother, John, died in March, 1Y70, and the af- 
fliction brought on a return of Cowper's malady. He lost 
his wonted cheerfulness, and relapsed gradually into a state 
of despondency. To divert his mind and to arrest the 
progress of the threatened insanity, Mr. Newton, with 
whom Cowper lived on terms of the most delightful inti- 
macy, proposed to him the joint preparation of a book of 
evangelical hymns. He had already written several, be- 
sides the one just named. His hymn, beginning with 
"Jesus ! where'er thy people meet," 

had been written the year before (1T69), to be sung at the 
11 



162 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

opening of a new place for public prayer at Olney, the 
large room of " The Great House." Cowper complied with 
the invitation, and, at various times within the next two 
years, he composed (with those he had already written) 
sixty-six hymns, distinguished by the letter " C " prefixed, 
in the " Olney Hymns." That much admired production, 

"God moves in a mysterious way," etc., 

was written, at the close of 17T2, " in the twilight of depart- 
ing reason," just after an abortive attempt, it is said, at 
self-destruction. He now sunk into an apparently hopeless 
state of gloom and wretched despondency, that continued, 
without a ray of sunshine, for five long years. Newton, 
having waited all this while for the recovery of his friend, 
put the hymn-book to press in 1779, as the " Olney HjTnns," 
— a name by which it has become widely known in Great 
Britain and America. — [See Newton.] 

His malady began to abate in 1778, and, gradually but 
slowly, he was restored to reason, hope, and peace, New- 
ton, at the close of the next year, removed to London, not, 
however, before introducing to Cowper the Eev. William 
Bull, a dissenting minister of the adjacent town of New- 
port-Pagnell, and a man of congenial spirit. The next year^ 
Cowper had so far recovered the tone of his mind, as to 
undertake the composition of several poems of considerable 
length. Within the next two years, he Avrote " The Progress 
of Error," "Truth," "Expostulation," "Hope," "Charity," 
" Conversation," and " Ketirement," — moral satires, that still 
retain their popularity. They were published, at London 
(1782), by Johnson, Newton's publisher. At the suggestion 
of his greatly-endeared friend, the Rev. Mr. Bull, he trans- 
lated (October, 1782) several of the hymns of Madame 
Guyon. The translations were published in 1801, among 
them the two hymns, 

"My Lord! how full of sweet content," etc., 
" O Lord! in soitow I resign," etc. 

A mile from Olney, at Clifton, resided the Rev. Mr. 



WILLIAM COWPER 163 

Jones, whose wife's sister had married Sir Robert Ansten, 
Bart. Sir Robert had died, and his widow, Lady Ansten, 
resided with her sister, Mrs. Jones. In 1Y81, she became a 
visitor at the humble abode of Mrs. Unwin. The next year, 
she took a house at Olney, and became an almost constant 
visitant at Mrs. Unwin's, adding greatly, by her vivacity 
and fascination of manner, to the comfort and happiness of 
the invalid poet. " John Gilpin " was inspired by one of 
her playful stories ; and, at her suggestion, " The Task " was 
undertaken in 1783, furnishing the poet with pleasant em- 
ployment for a year or two. Its publication in 1T85 was a 
complete success, and gave him, at once, an undisputed 
place among the first and best poets of the age. It was 
followed the next year by his " Tirocinium : or a Review 
of Schools." 

It was also at the suggestion of Lady Austen, that, in 
1784, he began his translations of Homer, affording him 
abundant occupation, the remainder of his rational life. 
Mrs. Unwin removed, ISTovember, 1786, to a much more 
comfortable abode, at Weston Underwood, a mile from 
Olney, where the poet found himself in the midst of beau- 
tiful scenery, and congenial society. But the cloud came 
over him again, in January following, and rested on him for 
six months. At the close of the year he resumed his work. 
In 1790, he translated from the Latin, for Mr. Newton, the 
Rev. Mr. Lier's Letters, published with the title, " The 
Power of Grace Illustrated." Homer was completed and 
published (1791) under flattering auspices, — the edition pay- 
ing him one thousand pounds. Not entirely satisfied with 
the performance, he commenced (1792) a revision of the en- 
tire work, on which he was occupied, much of the time, 
until his decease. It was published in 1802. 

The few remaining years of Cowper were sad enough. 
Deeper and deeper fell the shadows, with intervals — grow- 
ing shorter and fewer — of glimmering light. He undertook 
to prepare an edition of Milton for the jDress, but did not 
complete the work. In 1792, he made a journey to Eartham, 
in Sussex, the residence of his friend, William Hayley. On 



164 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

his return, the malady increased, so tliat, in January, 1794, 
it took complete j)OSsession of his faculties. A literary pen- 
sion of £300 was granted him (May, 1794), by the crown. 

At the urgent solicitation of his maternal cousin, the 
Rev. John Johnson, he removed, with Mrs. Unwin, August, 
1795, to Norf olkshire, where, at North Tuddenham, Mundes- 
ley, and East Dereham, he was entertained by his mother's 
relatives. At Dunham Lodge, Swaflham, he remained about 
a year, when, in October, 1796, he removed to Mr. Johnson's 
home at Dereham. Mrs. Unwin died, December 17th, fol- 
lowing, Cowper so far recovered as to occupy much time, 
the next two years, with the revision of Homer, and the 
translation of Gay's Fables. In March, 1799, he wrote " The 
Castaway," — his last poetic composition. The next autumn 
and winter he failed rapidly. Dropsy ensued, and, April 
25, 1800, he quietly passed away. His remains were laid to 
rest. May 2d, in St. Edmund's Chapel, St. Nicholas Church, 
East Dereham. A marble slab now covers the spot, on 
which is carved the following inscrix)tion, ^^^:•itten by his 
friend Hayley : 

"In Memory of William Cowper, Esq.: Bom in Hertfordshire, 
1731. Buried in this Church, 1800 : 

"Ye, who with warmth the public triumph feel, 
Of talents dignified by sacred zeal, 
Here, to Devotion's bard, devoutly just, i 

Pay your fond tribute, due to Cowper's dust I 
England, exulting in his spotless fame. 
Ranks with her dearest sons his favorite name. 
Sense, fancy, wit, suffice not all to raise 
So clear a title to affection's praise : 
His highest honoi-s to the heart belong ; 
His virtues formed the magic of his song. " 

So lived and wrote, suffered and died, one of the loveliest 
and most accomplished Christian gentlemen of his age ; 
" the most popular poet of his generation," as Southey, his 
biographer, declares, " and the best of English letter- writ- 
ers." "The popularity of Cowper," says Dibdin, "gains 
strength as it gains age ; and, after all, he is the poet of our 



FRANCES ELIZABETH COX. 165 

study, our cabinet, and our alcove." Precious is Ms mem- 
ory to every lover of sacred song. 



FRA]N'CES ELIZABETH COX. 

Miss Cox, tlie daughter of Mr. G. Y. Cox, M. A., was born 
in Oxford, England. Slie appeared, as the author of " Sacred 
Hymns from the German. Translated by Frances Elizabeth 
Cox. London, 1841." — "Second Edition, Revised and En- 
larged, 1864." — "This small selection," says the translator, 
" was, perhaps, the first attempt to make known to English 
readers " the beautiful hymns of Germany. The most of 
them "were pointed out to the translator, as 'national 
treasures,' by the late Baron Bunsen, on whose authority 
the names and dates of the authors are given." Several of 
these translations have become very popular. The selection 
is mostly from a comxDaratively modem school. 

"We have no hesitation in pronouncing it," says the 
Christian Bememhrancer, " to be one of the most successful 
attempts at translation which it has been our good fortune 
to meet with, whether we regard the faithfulness of the 
translator to the sentiment and metre of the original hymns, 
or the spirit and life which she has contrived to transfuse 
from them into her own translation." It is safe to say, 
that her translation of the " Hymn for Summer," — " Keine 
Schonheit hat die Welt," by Johann Scheffler [" Angelus "], 
— beginning with 

"Earth has nothing sweet or fair," 

is to be classed among the sweetest of sacred lyrics. 

The following are the first two stanzas of her translation, 
in a very peculiar metre, of a hymn by Burchard Wiesen- 
mayer (1680), containing eight such stanzas : 

' ' How lovely now the morning star, 

In twilight sky, bright gleams afar, 

While nig-ht her curtain raiseth ! 



166 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Eacli creature hails, with ravished sight, 
The glories of retm'ning light, 

And God, its Maker, praiseth : 

Both far. And near, * 

All things living Thanks are giving, 
There high soaring, 
Here through earth's wide field adormg. 

"Then haste, my soul ! thy notes to raise. 
Nor spare, in thy Redeemer's praise, 

To pom" thy due oblation ; 
For glory, Loi'd ! to thee belongs, 
Thy praise resounds, in grateful songs, 

"With pious emulation : 
Joy rings Griad strings ; 

Voices sounding, Hearts rebounding ; 
Thus all nature 
Hymns thy fame, great Creator ! " 



AETHUR CLEVELAND COXE. 

1818 . 

The poetry of tlie Et. Rev. Ai'thur Cleveland Coxe, D.D., 
LL.D., gives evidence of a superior intellect and careful 
culture. For each lie is greatly indebted to a parentage of 
peculiar eminence. His father, the Rev, Samuel Hanson 
Cox, D.D., LL.D., for more than half a century graced 
the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States of America. A brilliant preacher and a most suc- 
cessful pastor, he labored diligently in his vocation, as a 
pastor at Mendham, N, J., at New York City, and at Brook- 
lyn, as a Professor in the Theological Seminary of Auburn, 
N. Y., and as Chancellor of Leroy University, N. Y. His 
mother, Abia Hyde Cleveland (whose patronymic he bears), 
was the daughter of the Rev. Aaron Cleveland (1744-1815), 
of Norwich and Hartford, Conn., who was the son of the 
Rev. Aaron Cleveland (1719-1757). Her father was the 
author of a poem on Slavery (1775), and of a poetic bur- 
lesque, called "Family Blood." 



ARTHUE CLEVELAND COXE. 167 

Arthur was born, May 10, 1818, at Mendham, IST. J., where 
his father had just been installed pastor. In his third 
year, he became a resident of the City of New York, his 
father having accepted a call to the Spring Street Presby- 
terian Church of that city. At ten years of age, he was 
sent to a gymnasium, at Pittsfield, Mass. He entered the 
University of the City of New York, at the age of sixteen. 
While yet a Freshman, his poetic propensities found ex- 
pression in a poem, entitled, " The Progress of Ambition," 
delivered before one of the literary societies of the Univer- 
sity. He contributed, also, " The Blues," and " The Hebrew 
Muse," to the American MontJily Magazine. In his Junior 
year (1837), he published " Advent, a Mystery : a Dramatic 
Poem," with the following filial Dedication : 

"Father ! as lie, of old who reaped the field, 
The first young sheaves to Him did dedicate 

Whose bounty gave whate'er the glebe did yield, 
Whose smile the pleasant harvest might create, — 
So I to thee these numbers consecrate, — 

Thou, who didst lead to Silo's pearly spring ; 
And if, of hours well saved from revels late 

And youtliful riot, I these fruits do bring. 

Accept my early vow, nor frown on what I sing." 

He graduated in 1838, and, the same year, issued " Atli- 
wold : a Romaunt," and two cantos of " Saint Jonathan, the 
Lay of a Scald," the beginning of a semi-humorous poem, 
after the manner of Byron's "Don Juan." In the Univer- 
sity he was noted for his proficiency in the classics, and 
particularly, the Greek Poets. He studied German and 
Hebrew, two years, under the tuition of Prof. Nordheimer. 
Having connected himself with the Episcopal Church, he 
entered the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, New York City. He now contributed 
several fugitive pieces to the New York Cliiirchman (1839), 
that were extensively copied at home and abroad. In the 
following year they were published in a volume entitled 
" Christian Ballads," and received T\dth great favor. In liis 
" Hymn of Boyhood," the first in the book, he thus speaks 
of his devoted mother : 



168 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

"The first deai' thing that ever I loved 

Was a mother's gentle eye, 
That smiled, as I woke on the dreamy couch, 

That cradled my infancy : 
I never forget the joyous thrill 

That smile in my spirit stirred. 
Nor how it could charm me against my will, 

Till I laughed like a joyous bu*d." 

An enlarged edition was issued in 1847. 

At the commencement of Washington [now Trinity] Col- 
lege, Hartford, Conn., 1840, he delivered a Poem before 
the Alumni, entitled " Athanasion," which, with "Other 
Poems," was published in 1842. Prof. Henry Reed calls it 
"a genuine burst of poetry." He was ordained, June 28, 
1841, a deacon, by Bishop B. T. Onderdonk, of New York. 
In August, 1841, he became the Rector of St. Anne's 
Church, Morrisania, N. Y., and, September 21st, married 
his thii-d cousin, Catharine Cleveland, the daughter of Mr. 
Simeon Hyde, of New York. His " Halloween " was pri- 
vately printed in 1842, and published with " Other Poems," 
in 1844. 

In 1842, he became the Rector of St. John's Church, Hart- 
ford, Conn. Three years later, he brought out his " Saul ; a 
Mystery." A visit to the Old World, in 1851, gave occasion 
for numerous letters to the New York OJiurcli Journal, 
which were afterwards (1855) published in a volume, en- 
titled, "Impressions of England." He became (1854) the 
Rector of Grace Church, Baltimore, Md., and published 
(1855) a volume of "Sermons on Doctrine and Duty." At 
the breaking out of the " War of the Rebellion," he main- 
tained, amidst great opposition, the cause of his country ; 
and, when the Rectorship of Calvary Church, New York, 
was made vacant by the resignation and removal of Rev. 
Dr. Hawks to Baltimore, Dr. Coxe was called thence to take 
his place. Chosen, in 1864, the Bishop of the Diocese of 
Western New York, he was duly consecrated, January 4, 
1865, at Geneva, N. Y., and has since resided at Buffalo, 
N. Y. 

Dr. Coxe has frequently contributed to the Quarterly 



AKTHUR CLEVELAND COXE. 169 

Reviews, and other Periodicals. To the American Biblical 
Repository, New Yorl^; (1839), he contributed, "Modern 
English Poetry" and "Cowi^er's Poetry and Letters"; to 
the New York Review, " Devotional Poetry"; to the Cliurch 
Review, " Schools in American Literature " and " Writings 
of Hawthorne"; besides several Articles to BlachwoocTs 
Magazine. He translated from the French, and iDublished 
with a Supplement and Notes (1855), the Abbe Laborde's 
"Impossibility of the Immaculate Conception as an Ar- 
ticle of Faith." Also, a Translation of Dr. Von Hirscher's 
"Sympathies of the Continent, or Proposals for a New 
Reformation." He is the author, also, of several Occasional 
Sermons, Ei^iscopal Charges, and Addresses. 

His " Watchwords : a Hymn for the Times," from which 
the following stanzas are taken, can scarcely be surpassed 
as a Battle Cry for the Soldiers of the Cross : 

"We are living— we ai-e dwelling — 
In a grand and awful time : 
In an age, on ages telling, 
To be living is sublime. 

"Hark ! the waking up of nations, 
Gog and Magog, to the fray : 
Hark ! what soundeth is Creation's 
Groaning for the latter day. 

* ' Will ye play, then ? Will ye dally, 
With your mu.sic, with your wine ? 
Up ! it is Jehovah's rally ! 
God's own arm hath need of thine. 

"Worlds are charging — heaven beholding : 
Thou hast but an hour to fight ; 
Now, the blazoned Cross unfolding, 
On ! — right onward, for the right ! 

" Oh ! let all the soul within you 
For the truth's sake go abroad I 
Strike ! let every nerve and sinew 
TeU on ages-tell for God." 



170 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

GEORGE CRABBE. 

1754-1832. 

George Crabbe, LL.B., "the Poet of the Poor," was 
born, Christmas-eve, 1754, in the humble sea-faring village 
of Aldborough, Suffolk, on the shore of the German Ocean. 
An uninviting, forbidding stretch of sandy soil, with two 
parallel unpaved streets of squalid dwellings, washed by 
the ocean-storms, with no compensating background, — such 
was the place where he was trained. In his poem, " The 
Village," he alludes to it as follows : 

"Lo ! where the heath, with withering hrake grown o'er, 
Lends the Ught turf that warms the neighboring poor ; 
From thence a length of burning sand appears. 
Where the thin harvest waves its withered ears ; 
Rank weeds, that every art and care defy, 
Reign o'er the land, and rob the bhghted rye." 

The associates of his boyhood were hardly more attract- 
ive: 

" Here joyless roam a wild amphibious race, 
With sullen woe displayed in every face ; 
Who far from civil arts and social fly. 
And scowl at strangers with suspicious eye : " 

"A bold, artful, sujiy, savage race," 

ever intent on plunder ; who prey on " the finny tribe," 
and then 

"Wait on the shore, and, as the waves run high, 
On the tossed vessel bend their eager eye. 
Which to their coast directs its venturous way, 
Theu's, or the ocean's, miserable prey." 

Yet the boy, so unhappy in his surroundings, gave early 
promise of a better style of life. His father was the salt- 
master of the village, fond of "'3ooks and figures. Among 
his books was Martin's P7iilosop7iical Magazine, with its 
"Poets' Corner." George took to it suprisingly. An edu- 



GEORGE ORABBE. 171 

cation was accorded him. He was sent, first to a school at 
Bungay, on the Norfolli line, and then, in his twelfth year, 
for a short period, to another school at Stow-market. Some 
months were next spent in the drudgery of his father's busi- 
ness at home. 

In his fourteenth year, he was apprenticed to an apoth 
ecary at Wickham Brook, near Bury St. Edmunds ; and, 
three years afterwards, to Mr. Page, a surgeon at Wood- 
bridge. Here he found his future wife, Sarah Elmy. He 
had begun to amuse himself, during his apprenticeship, 
with versification. His first poem, " Inebriety," was pub- 
lished (1775) at Ipswich. After a short, but ineffectual, 
visit of eight or ten months to London, he obtained employ- 
ment with a Mr. Maskell, at home; and, on his removal 
shortly after, set up the surgical business for himself. Five 
years of ineffectual struggle resulted in a determination to 
abandon his profession, and, on a £5 loan, to seek his for- 
tune as a literary adventurer in London. 

" The Candidate " was published in 1780, but his publisher 
failed and he lost all. A year was passed in penury and 
distress. Apjjlications to men of note proved fruitless. He 
made bold to lay his case before Edmund Burke, the cel- 
ebrated statesman, who generously invited him to his house, 
applauded his verse, and furnished the means for its pub- 
lication. " The Library " was issued in 1781, and was well 
received. At Burke's house, he made the acquaintance of 
the literary magnates of the period, and received their 
encouragement and patronage. Thurlow, the Lord High 
Chancellor, gave him £100, and so relieved him from his 
straits. 

He now determined to enter the Church. After a brief 
course of study, he was ordained, December 21, 1781, a dea- 
con, by the Bishop of Norwich, and obtained the Curacy of 
Aldborough, his native village. The next year, he received, 
at the instance of Burke, the appointment of Domestic 
Chaplain to the Duke of Rutland, was ordained (August, 
1782) priest, and became an inmate of Bel voir Castle. " The 
Village" was published. May, 1783. Tavo small livings in 



173 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Dorsetshke were now given liim, by Thurlow, the Lord 
Chancellor, followed by the degree of LL.B. He married 
in 1785; and, the next four years, served as curate of 
Stethern, adjacent to Belvoir Castle. " The Newspaper " 
appeared in 1785. He was presented, February, 1789, to 
the living of Muston, in Leicestershire. In November, 
1792, he removed to Parham, Suffolk— the home of Mrs. 
Crabbe. Four years later (October, 1796), he became the 
Curate of Great Glenham. At length (October, 1805) he 
returned to his directory at Muston, and, in September, 
1807, he published "The Parish Register, and other Po- 
ems." His beautiful hymn, 

"Pilgrim ! burdened with thy sin," etc., 

appeared in "Sir Eustace Grey." Artistically it is one of 
the most perfect in the whole range of hymnology. That 
one so capable should have written no others of the same 
sort is much to be regretted. 

"The Borough" followed, in 1810, and his "Tales in 
Verse," in 1812. Mrs. Crabbe, in 1813, was removed by 
death. In June of the next year, he was presented to the 
living of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, whither he presently re- 
moved, and wiiere he continued to reside until the day of 
his decease. His " Tales of the Hall," the last of his pub- 
lications, api3eared in 1819, for which and the copyright of 
all his previous poems, Murray, the publisher, gave him 
£3,000. He lived to a good old age, and passed away, 
February 3, 1832, in his seventy- eighth year. The follow- 
ing, from the pen of John Duncan, Esq., of New College, 
Oxford, gives expression to the popular judgment : 

' ' Farewell, dear Crabbe ! thou meekest of mankind, 
With heart all fei'vor, and all strength of mind ; 
With tenderest sympathy for others' woes, 
Fearless all guile and malice to exi^ose ; 
Steadfast of purpose in pursuit of right, 
To drag forth dark hypocrisy to light. 
To brand th' oppressor, and to shame the proud. 
To shield the righteous from the slanderous crowd ; 
To error lenient, and to frailty mild. 



JANE [FOX] CREWDSON. 173 

Repentance ever was thy welcome child : 
In every state — as husband, parent, friend. 
Scholar or bard — thou couldst the Christian blend. 
Hogarth of Song ! be this thy perfect praise : — 
Truth prompted, and Truth piu-ified thy lays ; 
The God of Truth has given thy verse and thee 
Truth's holy pahn — His Immoi'tality." 



JANE [FOX] CREWDSON. 

1809-1863. 

Mes. Crewdson was the daughter of George Fox, Esq., 
of Perran, Cornwall. In this " seaboard parish " she was 
born, October, 1809, and, at an early age, gave ]Dromise 
of high intellectual development. Her studies were pur- 
sued with ardor, and she became a proficient, not only in 
the modern languages, but also in the knowledge of the 
Classics. 

In her twenty-seventh year she became the wife of 
Thomas D. Crewdson, Esq., of Manchester. Always deli- 
cate in physical structure, Mrs. Crewdson, at lengtli, be- 
came a confirmed invalid, and, for many years, was con- 
fined to the chamber of sickness. During her protracted 
illness, her Christian graces were beautifully developed. 
Mr. Crewdson says : " As a constant sufferer, the spiritual 
life deepening, and the intellectual life retaining all its 
power, she became well prepared to testify as to the all- 
sufficiency of her Saviour's love. Many felt that her sick- 
room was the highest place to which they could resort 
for refreshment of spirit, and even for mental recreation. 
From that apartment came many a letter of earnest sym- 
pathy, or of charming playfulness." 

Between the paroxysms of pain, she occupied herself, at in- 
tervals, with exercises in verse, and thus relieved the tedium 
of her confinement. Four volumes of delightful poetry were 



174 THE POETS OP THE CHURCH. 

the result of these quiet hours : " The Singer of Eisenach "; 
" Aunt Jane's Verses for Chilcb^en "; " Lays of the Reforma- 
tion, and other Lyiics " (1860) ; and " A Little While, and 
other Poems." The last was a posthumous publication 
(1864). She fell asleep, September 14, 1863, at her home, 
Summerlands, near Manchester. 

Tliat beautiful hymn, the fruit of a pure poetic taste 
sanctified by bodily suffering, 

"I've found a joy in sorrow," etc., 

is found in her " Lays of the Reforaiation." 
The following is one of her sweetest hymns : 

" There's not a grief, however light, 
Too light for sympathy ; 
There's not a care, however slight, 
Too slight to bring to Thee. 

" Thou, who hast trod the thorny road. 
Wilt shai'e each small distress ; 
Por he, who bore the greater load. 
Will not refuse the less. 

" There's not a secret sigh we breathe 
But meets the ear divine ; 
And every cross grows light beneath 
The shadow. Lord ! of thine. 

" Life's woes without, sin's strife within, 
The heart would overflow. 
But for that love which died for sia, 
That love which wept with woe." 



WILLIAM CROSWELL. 

1804-1851. 

Rev. William Croswell, D.D., was a native of Hud- 
son, N. Y., and was born, November 7, 1804,— the third 
child of Harry Croswell and Susan Sherman. His father 



WILLIAM CEOSWELL. 175 

was tlien editor of Tlie Balance, and not long afterwards 
(1809) removed to Albany, N. Y.; though of Puritan stock, lie 
attached himself to the Episcopal Church, entered the min- 
istry in 1814, and (January 1, 1815) became the Rector of 
Trinity Church, New Haven, Conn.,— of which place Mrs. 
Croswell was a native. 

The son entered Yale College in 1818, and, having ac- 
quired some distinction as a scholar and poet, graduated 
in 1822. After four years of somewhat desultory life, tow- 
ards the close of which his religious character was more 
fully developed, he entered the General Theological Semi- 
nary in New York. The next spring, however, he accepted 
an invitation to be associated with Prof. George W. Doane 
[afterwards Bishop] as editor of the Episcopal Watcliman, 
then (March 26, 1827) just started at Hartford, Conn., 
and accordingly removed thither. Having continued the 
prosecution of his theological studies, he was ordained by 
Bishop Brownell, January 25, 1829, a deacon, and, two 
months later, retired from the editorial chair. Many of 
his sonnets, hymns, and fugitive poems, appeared, during 
these two years, in the columns of the Watcliman. It was 
for a piiblic meeting of the " Howard Benevolent Society " 
of Boston, January 2, 1831, that he wrote the useful lyiic, 
beginning with 

" Lord ! lead the way the Savioiir went." 

Having accepted (May, 1829) an invitation to the rector- 
ship of Christ Church, Boston, Mass., he was ordained, 
June 24, 1829, to the priesthood. Here he continued in 
the laborious discharge of his parochial duties, until April, 
1840, when he accepted a call to St. Peter's Church, Auburn, 
N. Y., and was married in May to Miss Amanda, daughter 
of Mr. Silas P. Tarbell. His friends and admirers at Bos- 
ton, having organized the Church of the Advent expressly 
for him, prevailed on him, at the expiration of about four 
and a half years, to return to Boston (September, 1844) and 
take the pastorate of the new church. In sympathy with 
his former associate and endeared friend, Bishop Doane, 



176 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

he favored the Oxford movement, as a Tractarian, in oppo- 
sition to his diocesan, Bishop Eastbnrn. He was a most 
thorough " Churchman," all his ministerial life. He died 
quite suddenly, November 9, 1851. 

His Memoirs, published by his venerable father, in 18.^)3, 
contain 34 sonnets, 72 poems, and 38 psalms, hymns, and 
jDrayers — not a few of them of exquisite finish and sweet- 
ness, but many of them pervaded by the ritualistic spirit 
so characteristic of Keble's "Christian Year," of which 
wonderfully popular book he was a great admirer. The 
following hymn (1834), on the "Noon Day" at Jacob's 
Well, is a fair specimen of his ordinary style : 

' ' O Thou ! who, m the languid noon, 

By Sychar's well, didst open wide 
To wondering eyes a better boon 

Than e'er theu' fathers' fount supplied ; 
Up, where thy brightest glories burn. 

Our fainting souls, at every stage, 
For thy celestial succor turn, 

In this, our weary pilgrimage. 

" When, from the sun's meridian glow, 

We seek refreshment and repose. 
Do thou thy heavenly gifts bestow, 

And all the stores of Me unclose ; 
Thence, quench the fervid spirit's thirst, 

Thence, fill us as with angel's food, 
Till, day by day, our souls are nursed 

For their divine beatitude." 



JOHANN CRUGER. 

1598-1662. 

JoHANX Cruger was born in 1598, and, by his skill in 
music, obtained, in 1622, the position of precentor, organist, 
and chapel-master of St. Nicholas Church, Berlin, and held 
it until his death in 1662. He is the author of that pecul- 



JOHN WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. 177 

iarly toucliing eucharistic hymn, which, translated by Rev. 
Charles Wesley, (the 23d of his " Hymns on the Lord's 
Slipper," 1745), begins, 

" Hearts of stone ! relent, relent." 

The original German hymn is found in a Lutheran Collec- 
tion, " Praxis Pietatis " (1640), of which thirty editions had 
been published in 1701, and many more at a later date. 
Previous to 1651, he had published " Synopsis Musica," and 
several other musical works. He wrote quite a number of 
beautiful tunes, of which " Harwich " is quite well known 
in America. Tlie melody that he composed for Einkart's 
popular German hymn, 

' ' Nun danket alle Gott, " etc. , 

is said to be the best known tune in the world. At mid- 
night on IS'ew- Year's eve, as the clock strikes twelve, it is 
customary for every orthodox German household, at least 
in the fatherland, to sing the hymn to Criiger's tune. It 
has, also, attained great popularity in England. 



JOHN" WILLIAM CUIS^IS^INGHAM. 

1780-1861. 

The Rev. Johtst W. Cunningham, long and popularly 
known as " The Vicar of Harrow," was born in 1780, and 
educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, England, where 
he graduated, A.B., in 1802, and A.M., in 1805. In the lat- 
ter year, he married Miss Sophia Williams, daughter of R. 
Williams, Esq., of Moor Park. He had previously held a 
Fellowship in St. John's College. 

He published anonymously (1805) "A World without 
Souls." It is a fanciful sketch, designed to rouse attention 
to the' care of the soul. It contains two sonnets and two 
epitaphs, very creditable specimens of the author's poetic 



178 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

talent. The book was favorably received, and lias been fre- 
quently reprinted. The Rev. Dr. Claudius Buchanan, the 
same year, had offered two generous prizes (£500 each), 
to be paid by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
to the vrriters of the two best Essays on " Christianity in 
India." Tlie Oxford prize was awarded (1807) to the Rev. 
Hugh Pearson, afterwards Dr. Buchanan's biographer. The 
Cambridge prize was withheld, because the only Essay that 
was sent in, at all worthy of it, was not received until sev- 
eral days after the expiration of the time. It proved to be 
by Mr. Cunningham, and the greater part of it was after- 
wards (1808) published at the expense of Dr. Buchanan, 
with the title : " Christianity in India. An Essay on the 
Duty, Means, and Consequences of introducing the Chris- 
tian Religion among the Native Inhabitants of the British 
Dominions in the East," — a measure violently opposed at 
that day. The Essay displays originality, research, vigor 
of thought, and true Christian zeal. 

In 1811, he was instituted Vicar of Harrow-on-the-Hill, 
the living being in the gift of Lord Northwick. It is a 
most commanding position. Seven counties are to be seen 
from it — a vast panorama of most lovely scenery, unequal ed 
in all England. Charles II., on one occasion, is reported to 
have said of the visible church, — " I know not where it is to 
be found, except indeed at Harrow." From this conspicu- 
ous height, Mr. Cunningham sent forth, in 1812, in a pam- 
phlet of sixty-seven pages, some forcible and effective 
" Observations, designed as a Reply to the ' Thoughts ' of 
Dr. Maltby, on the Dangers of Circulating the Whole of 
the Scriptures among the Lower Orders." 

Thus early, in his public life, Mr. Cunningham had es- 
poused the Evangelical Cause, and given the weight of his 
talents and influence to the " Church Missionary Society," 
the " British and Foreign Bible Society," and kindred in- 
stitutions. He published (1814) an Address to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, on the subject of " Church of Eng- 
land Missions," recommending and enforcing a plan for 
developing the missionary energies of the Church of Eng- 



JOHN WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. 179 

land. This was followed, the same year, by " The Velvet 
Cushion," sent forth, like his first work, anonymously, and 
^\Titten in the same fanciful style. It was really a history 
of the Pulpit, and a critique on the Clergy. It has fre- 
quently been republished, and its statements have been 
much controverted. This was followed (1816) by his " San- 
cho, or the Proverbialist," also published anonymously. 

Mrs. Cunningham, in the midst of her days and useful- 
ness, was quite suddenly taken away by an acute disorder, 
January 9, 1821, leaving nine children under fourteen years 
of age. Several years afterwards he entered again into the 
marriage relation. He received the appointment of Do- 
mestic Chaplain to his Patron, Lord Korthwick, and, in 
1822, gave to the press a volume of " Sermons " on " Miscel- 
laneous Subjects." His " Morning Thoughts in Prose and 
Verse, on single Verses in the successive Chajiters in the 
Gospel of St. Matthew," appeared in 1824. A second vol- 
ume of " Sennons " on " Practical Subjects " was published 
in 1825. Besides several occasional Discourses, Mr. Cun- 
ningham published "De Ranee, a Poem," and "Lectures 
on Jonah." 

Closely connected with his parish, was the famous " Free 
School of Harrow"; and during his long ministry of half a 
century he preached the Gospel to some thousands of boys 
and young men connected with this school, over whom he 
exercised the happiest influence. In a visit to Harrow, in 
1842, the Eev. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, of New York, was 
welcomed at the Vicarage, which he speaks of as " a spot 
of exceeding beauty " without ; and further says, " the un- 
rivaled manners of the Vicar of Harrow, and of his equally 
admirable lady, rendered the interior of the dwelling far 
more so." "His appearance," he adds, "unites as com- 
pletely and beautifully the tinished deportment of the 
highest requirement in society, and the meekness and gen- 
tleness of the true child of God, as any person whom I have 
ever seen." "He is one of the brightest ornaments of his 
age and church." 

The late Mrs. Frances Trollope was, during a large por- 



180 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

tion of her married life, a resident of Harrow. Conceiving 
a dislike for the godly Vicar, she wrote and iDublished 
(1837) " The Vicar of Wrexhill," designed as a satire on the 
"Vicar of Harrow Hill." It failed of its effect, however, 
and served only to deepen and develop the more the ardent 
affection of the parish for their highly honored jDastor. 
Having reached his eighty-first year, he gently passed 
away, September 30, 1861, and entered into rest. 

The following Hymn is taken from his "Morning 
Thoughts" (1825): 

' ' When my sad heart surveys the pain 
Which weary pilgrims here sustain, 

As o'er the waste of Hf e they roam ; 
Oppressed without, betrayed within, 
Victims of violence and sin, 

Shall I not cry, — ' Thy kingdom come ?' 

"And, when I know whose strong control 
Can calm and cheer each troubled soul. 

And lead these weary wanderers home, 
Can lodge them in a Father's breast. 
And soothe this weary world to rest, 

Shall I not cry, — ' Thy kingdom come ? ' 

" Oh! rise, the kingdom of the Lord! 
Come to thy realms, immortal Word ! 

Melt and subdue these hearts of stone ; 
Erect the thi-one which camiot move ; 
Stretch forth the sceptre of thy love, 
And make this rebel heart thine own." 



SAMUEL DAVIES. 

1723-1761. 

President Davies was the son of David Davies, a Welsh 
immigrant, who cultivated a farm at Summit Ridge, New- 
castle County, Delaware. Here the son was born, Novem- 



SAMUEL DAVIES. 181 

ber 3, 1723, His godly mother was his teacher until he was 
ten years old, when he came under the instruction, for two 
years, of the Rev. Abel Morgan, a Welsh Baptist. He be- 
came a subject of divine grace at the age of twelve years, 
and at fifteen a member of the church. 

The classical school at Fagg's Manor, Pa., was opened by 
the Rev. Samuel Blair, in 1740, and Davies shortly after be- 
came one of its students. He was duly licensed, July 80, 
1746, by the Presbytery of Newcastle, to preach the Gos- 
pel. His marriage to Miss Sarah Kirkpatrick occurred Oc- 
tober 28, 1746. He was ordained, February 19, 1747, as an 
evangelist. Manly and graceful in j)erson, voice, and man- 
ner, of a sweet and tender disposition, he became speedily 
an attractive and popular preacher. He labored awhile on 
the eastern shore of Maryland, and then for a few months 
as a missionary in Hanover County, Va. His wife died very 
suddenly (after his return), September 16, 1747, and his own 
health was greatly imi3aired. 

In the spring of 1748, he returned to Hanover, Va., and 
was installed pastor of the Presbyterian church of that 
place, in May, 1748. He married, October 4, 1748, Miss Jean, 
the daughter of John Holt, of Hanover. Notwithstanding 
the opposition of the colonial government to all " dissent- 
ers," his ministry was eminently successful. 

In company with the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, of New Jer- 
sey, by appointment of the Synod of New York, at the 
close of 1753, he visited Great Britain, to procure funds for 
the College of New Jersey. His preaching was received 
with remarkable favor, and his mission was a success. He 
contracted a warm personal friendship for the Rev, Dr. 
Thomas Gibbons, of London, and made many other valuable 
friends. At the close of 1754, he left England, returned 
home, and resumed his pastoral work. His preaching now 
became more popular than ever, and, by reason of its great 
success in the planting of new churches, the Presbytery of 
Hanover was organized in 1755. 

Having labored thus diligently for the space of four years 
and more, and having been twice chosen to succeed the late 



182 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

President Edwards, he was duly inducted, July 26, 1759. 
into the Presidency of the College of New Jersey. A suc- 
cessful career apparently awaited him, but, after a short 
illness resulting from a violent cold, he died, February 4, 
1761, greatly lamented both at home and abroad. 

He was regarded " as the most eloquent American divine 
of the past age." The Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston, of the 
Reformed Dutch Church, of New York City, said, " that he 
was without exception the lirst pulpit orator to whom he 
had ever listened. His voice, his attitudes, his gesture, 
everything pertaining to manner, came uj) to the most per- 
fect ideal that he was able to form. " 

Several of his Occasional Sermons and Discourses were 
published, at intervals, during his life. The most of these, 
with many others, were prepared for publication, after his 
death, by his greatly attached friend, the Rev. Dr. Gibbons, 
of London, and issued (1767-1771) in five volumes. An 
American edition in three volumes was published (3d ed., 
1811) at Boston, Mass. Among the manuscripts of President 
Davies, committed to Dr. Gibbons for publication, were 
copies of sixteen original hymns. These were included in 
a Collection of "Hymns adapted to Divine Worship," pub- 
lished by Dr. Gibbons, at London, in 1769, Among them 
are the familiar hymns : 

"Eternal Spirit, Som-ce of light! " etc., 
"Lord ! I am thine, entirely thine," etc. 

The following stanzas are from a hymn by Davies, on the 
"Excellency of Christ": 

"My Prophet thou, my heavenly Guide ! 

Thy sweet instructions I will hear ; 
The words, that from thy hps proceed, 

Oh ! how divinely sweet they are ! 
Thee, my great Prophet, I would love, 
And imitate the blessed above. 

"My great High-Priest ! whose precious blood 
Did once atone upon the Cross, 
Who now dost intercede with God, 



ELIEL DAVIS. 133 

And plead the friendless sinner's cause, 
In thee I ti'ust ; thee I would love, 
And imitate the blessed above. 

' My King supreme ! to thee I bow, 

A willmg subject, at thy feet ; 
All other lords I disavow, 

And to thy government submit : 
My Saviour-Kang this heart would love, 
And imitate the blessed above," 



ELIEL DAVIS. 

1803-1849. 

Mr. Eliel Davis was born, June 5, 1803, at Folkestone^ 
England. His father was the teacher of a respectable school, 
and a deacon of the Baptist Church. The celebrated Tem- 
perance lecturer, John B. Gough, who was born at Sandgate, 
a hamlet two miles west of Folkestone, says, in his auto- 
biography : " My father paid a weekly sum for my instruc- 
tion at the seminary of Mr. Davis, of Folkestone." This was 
in 1825 ; and, about this time, the late Rev. Dr. Joseph Bel- 
cher, the author of "Historical Sketches of Hymns," etc., 
became the pastor of the Folkestone Baptist Church. 

Young Davis, in 1821, obtained a situation as clerk in a 
dry-goods store, at Wandsworth, London. In January, 1822, 
he became a member of the Eagle Street Baptist Church, 
under the care of Rev. Joseph Ivirney. Full of pious 
zeal, he soon after began to exhort and conduct religious 
meetings in the suburban villages; and, in 1826, he was 
admitted to the Baptist College, at Stepney, London, as a 
student for the ministry. About this time. Dr. Belcher 
undertook the preparation of a monthly magazine in man- 
uscript, for the young people of his congregation, who were 
the chief contributors. It was called the Mutual Instructor. 
Young Davis often wrote for it, and, in 1826, contributed 
to it the well-known hymn, 

" From every earthly pleasui'e," etc., 



184 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

whicli lias been improperly ascribed, in some Compilations, 
to Mr. Joseph Cottle. Dr. Belclier showed it to a London 
editor (then on a visit to him), who copied it and published 
it in his own magazine, whence it was transferred to the 
hymn-books. It was introduced to the American churches, 
by the Rev. Joshua Leavitt, in his " Christian Lyre," New 
York, 1830. 

In 1828 Mr. Davis took charge of a Baptist church 
at Newport, Isle of Wight. At the end of six years, he 
was called to the Regent Street Baptist Church, Lam- 
beth, London, where he remained seven years. One year 
(1841) he spent with a church at Eye, Suffolk, and, the next 
year, became the pastor of the Baptist Church at St. Ives, 
Huntingdonshire. Here he continued until his sudden de- 
cease, in March, 1849. 

Tlie only other hymn attributed to him appeared in the 
" Supplement " to the London Evangelical Magazine^ for 
1836, on "The Believer's Prospects." It contains seven 
stanzas, the first three of which are here given : 

"There is a heaven of perfect peace, 
Transparent, brig-ht, and clear ; 
But where, or how, or what it is, 
' It doth not yet appear.' 

"And there are angels strong and fair. 
Who know nor sin nor fear ; 
But what the robes of light they wear, 
'It doth not yet appear.' 

"And there are ransomed spirits too. 
Who once were travehng here ; 
But how the Saviour's face they view, 
' It doth not yet appear.' " 



THOMAS DAVIS. 

1804 . 



The Rev. Thomas Davis is a clergyman of the Church 
of England. His father, the Rev. Richard Francis Davis, 



THOMAS DAVIS. 185 

D.D., was instituted (1795) tlie Rector of All-Saints' Cliurcli, 
Worcester, where (1804) tlie son was born. He was edu- 
cated for the Church, and sent to Queen's College, Oxford, 
where he was graduated in 1832. The next year he became 
his father's curate, and (January 25, 1834) was ordained to 
the priesthood. At the close of 1839, he obtained from the 
patron, S. Nicholson, Esq., the Perpetual Curacy of St. 
John's Church, Roundhay, near Leeds. In 1871, he was, 
also, appointed chaplain of the reformatory shij) Akhar, 
lying in the Mersey. 

He has been very decidedly addicted to poetry. In 1855, 
he issued a small volume, entitled, " Devotional Verse for a 
Month," etc.; in 1859, "Songs for the Suffering"; in 1860, 
"The Family Hymnal"; and, in 1864, "Hymns, Old and 
New," a collection of 223 selected and 260 original hymns. 
A second edition appeared in 1867. He is of the Broad 
Church party, having, in 1866, put forth a volume, called, 
"Endless Sufferings not the Doctrine of Scripture." 

From his " Songs for the Suffering" (1859), are taken the 
following first three stanzas of a hymn of eight stanzas, on 
the theme, "God is Love": 

"Why comes this fragrance on the summer breeze,— 
The blended tribute of ten thousand flowers, 

To me, a frequent wanderer 'mid the trees 
That form these gay though soUtary bowers ? 

One answer is around, beneath, above : 

The echo of the voice, that 'God is Love.' 

"Why bursts such melody from tree and bush, 

The overflowing of each songster's heart, 
So filling mine, that it can scarcely hush 

Awhile to listen, but would take its part ? 
'Tis but one song I hear, where'er I rove, 
Though countless be the notes, that 'God is Love.' 

"Why leaps the streamlet down the mountain's side, 

Hastening so swiftly to the vale beneath, 
To cheer the shepherd's thirsty flock, or glide 

Where the hot sun has left a faded wreath, 
Or, rippling, aid the music of the grove ? 
Its own glad voice replies, that ' God is Love.' " 



186 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

JAMES GEORGE DECK. 

1802 . 

Mr. Deck is a missionary in New Zealand. He is con- 
nected with the Plymontli Brethren, and is the eldest son 
of John Deck, Esq., of Bury St. Edmunds, England. He 
was born in 1802, and trained for the army. He obtained, 
January 2, 1826, a lieutenant's commission in the Fifteenth 
Regiment of Native Infantry, Madras, India. He was sta- 
tioned at Bangalore. Ill-health, in 1835, compelled his re- 
turn to his native land. 

He contributed several hymns to a Collection published 
by the Plymouth Brethren in 1838, and called, " Hymns for 
the Poor of the Flock." He took charge, in 1843, of the 
Brethren's congregation at Wellington, Somerset, — having 
retired from the army. Thence he went to Weymouth, 
Dorsetshire. While at Wellington, he published (1845), 
" Joy in Departing : A Memoir of the Conversion and Last 
Days of Augustus James Clarke, who fell asleep in Jesus, 
May 2d, 1845," in his fourteenth year ;— the son of a brother 
officer, entrusted to his care on his return from India. The 
same year, he also published, " A Word of Warning to All 
who love the Lord Jesus : the Heresy of Mr. Prince, with 
Extracts from his Letters." He sent forth, in 1850 and 1852, 
two Letters " On Receiving and Rejecting Brethren from 
the Table of the Lord." He entered heartily into the mis- 
sionary work, and, having been thoroughly acclimated in 
India, he went abroad, about 1852, to labor in New Zea- 
land, where he has continued to reside. 

He contributed 27 hymns to the Wellington Hymn-Book, 
edited (1857) by D. C. Pox, Esq., and 17 hymns to another 
collection of " Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Children 
of God," edited and published (1860) by John Usticke Sco- 
bell, Esq. The hymn beginning, 

" It is thy hand, my God ! " 



MARIA DE FLEURY. 187 

" was written to comfort a bereaved motlier and widow in 
lier hour of sorrow. " 

The stanzas that follow are the first and the last of a mi]- 
lenarian hymn of four stanzas : 

" How long-, O Lord, our Saviour! 

Wilt thou remain away ? 
Our hearts are growing weary 

Of thy so long delay : 
Oh ! when shall come the moment, 

When, brighter far than morn, 
The sunshine of thy glory 

Shall on thy people dawn ? 

' ' Oh ! wake thy slumbering virgins ; 

Send forth the solemn cry, 
Let all thy saints repeat it, — 

' The Bridegroom draweth nigh ! ' 
May all our lamps be burning. 

Our loms well ghded be. 
Each longing heart preparing 

With joy thy face to see." 



MARIA DE FLEURY. 

Very little is known of the personal history of Miss 
De Fleury. Her home and, probably, her birth were in 
London. She wrote an " Epithalamium," addressed "by 
their affectionate sister," "to Mr. and Mrs. De Fleury, 
Junrs., Married, November 2oth, 1773." She was, at that 
time, a devout Christian. One of her miscellaneous pieces 
is, "An Elegy on the Death of my Sister, Mrs. Elizabeth 
Burrows," who died "in prime of life," whose "tragic 
story " she forbears to tell, in view of her happy transla- 
tion to a better world. Of her family, nothing further can 
be gleaned. 

She resided in Jewin Street, and was for some years a 
member of the Independent Church, Barbican (an offshoot 
from the Jewin Street Church), of which the Rev. John 



188 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Towers was long tlie pastor. He speaks of her in his In 
trodiiction to her " Poems," as " a pious godly woman, who 
fears God above many"; as having "a style, rather mascu- 
line," because, probably, of her " being frequently in the 
company of ministers." The Rev. Thomas Wills, of Silver 
Street Church (who, also, wrote an introduction to her 
book), says that she "is so well known in the religious 
world by her many productions, as to need neither intro- 
duction nor any recommendation of mine to the public." 
He speaks of her as " jDoor in this world, though rich in 
grace"; as "perfectly sound in the Gospel," and as a 
"faithful chamioion for the faith once delivered to the 
saints." The Rev. Dr. John Ryland, also, commends her 
" Poems," and professes that his " respect to the author is 
sincere." This is the sum of her personal history, so far as 
can now be learned. She herself says, that she had " not 
enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education." She was 
evidently a woman of vigorous thought, of considerable 
poetic fervor, moving in respectable society, and held in 
much esteem by the godly among the Dissenting churches 
of the period. 

She contributed two hymns to the " Supplement " of The 
Gospel Magazine for 1776. She published, in 1781, " A Se- 
rious Address to the Rev. Mr. Huntington," "Unright- 
eous Abuse Detected and Chastised"; in 1782, "Henry, or 
the Triumph of Grace"; in 1783, "An Ode"; in 1787, "A 
Letter to Mr. Huntington" (3d Ed.) ; in 1791, " Antinomi- 
anism Unmasked and Refuted," " Falsehood Examined at 
the Bar of Truth, or a Farewell to Mr. W. Huntington," and 
her " Divine Poems." Mr. Huntington, Minister of Provi- 
dence Chapel, London, was at that time a leading Antino- 
mian among the Calvinistic Methodists. Miss De Fleury 
was herself a thorough Calvinist. 

The first of her Divine Poems is entitled "Immanuel." 
It is a poem, in blank verse, of 1,600 lines. The following 
stanzas are from " An Hymn of Praise," in fourteen stanzas : 

" Come, O my soul! awake; awake and sing; 
Come, tune thy harp to sweetest, softest lays ; 



SIR EDWARD DENNY. 139 

Record the wonders of tliy God and King, 
And offer up a song of grateful i^raise. 

My Father and my God ! to thee I'll sing 

Eternal anthems of unbounded praise; 
Myself, my all, an humble offering bring 

To thee, the God of Providence and Grace. 

Oh for a thousand hearts to love thy name ! 

A thousand tongues to sing thy glories high 1 
To spread abroad thine everlasting fame, 

Ajid join the hallelujahs of the sky ! " 



SIE EDWARD DEN^NY. 

1796 . 

It is not often tliat so mncli poetic grace and fervent pi- 
ety are combined with such eminent position, as in the case 
of Sir Edward Denny. He is a native of Connty Kerry, 
Ireland, and was born, October 2, 1796, at Tralee Castle, 
the Seat of his father. At an early period of his life, he 
espoused the peculiar tenets of the Plymouth Brethren. 
He has long been a firm believer in the Millenarian theory 
of the Second Coming of our Lord, and his Personal Reign 
on Earth for a thousand years. A large portion of his beau- 
tiful hymns are "Millennial Hymns." They were contrib- 
uted, occasionally, to various publications. Having been 
frequently asked by his friends to point out his own hymns 
in the Collections into which they had been gathered, he 
published them in a modest volume, with the title, " Hjntnns 
and Poems, by Sir Edward Denny, Bart., London, 1839," — 
a second edition appearing in 1848. 

In the Preface to his book, he deprecates most earnestly 
" the practice of needlessly altering some even of our well- 
known favorite hymns." He says : " It is surely not fair to 
treat another's compositions in this way, especially where he 



190 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

is not unsound as to doctrine. In writing a hymn or a 
poem, an author knows his own meaning and object far 
better than another can possibly do ; and, where he finds 
that his thoughts have been meddled with and deranged 
in this way, he is painfully conscious that he has been mis- 
understood, and that the sense has been either perverted or 
weakened." 

Sir Edward is the author of several elaborate Charts, 
respectively called, "A Prophetical Stream of Time"; 
"The Seventy Weeks of Daniel"; and "The Cycle of Sev- 
enty Weeks." He has written, also, and published, several 
cheap Tracts and Broad-sheets, illustrative of his Millena- 
rian views. 

One of his " Miscellaneous Poems " is inscribed " To the 
Memory of a Beloved Mother, who Fell Asleep in Jesus, 
Ajoril 27, 1828," and had obtained peace in believing through 
his prayers and pleadings. Two others follow " on the 
same " theme. His father having died in August, 1831, he 
succeeded to the title and estate as fourth baronet. 

The stanzas that follow are from his hymn, entitled, 
"The Heart watching for the Morning": 

"Light of the lonely pilgrim's heart, 
Star of the coining clay ! 
Arise, and, with thy morning heams, 
Chase all oui' griefs away. 

" Come, blessed Lord! bid every shore 
And answering island sing 
The praises of thy royal name, 
And own thee as their King. 

"Bid the whole earth, responsive now 
To the bright world above. 
Break forth in rapturous strains of joy, 
In mem'ry of thy love." 



DAVID DICKSON. 191 

DAVID DICKSOK 

1583-1662. 

In the " Short Account of the Life of the Rev. David 
Dickson" (1726), the Rev. Robert Wodi'ow, the distin- 
guished historian of the Church of Scotland, eminent for 
historical research, fulness of information, and scrupulous 
accuracy, having enumerated some of Dickson's wiitings, 
adds : " Besides these, he wrote .... some short poems 
on pious and serious subjects, which, I am told, have been 
very useful Avhen printed and spread among country people 
and servants ; such as ' The Christian Sacrifice '; ' O Mother 
dear, Jerusalem ! ' and one somewhat larger, 8vo, 1649, en- 
titled ' True Christian Love,' to be sung with the common 
tunes of the Psalms. This is all of his I have seen in 
print. " 

In a marginal note, the Rev. W. K. Tweedie, editor of 
the Wodrow Society Publications, further says : " There is, 
also, a poem ascribed to Dickson, entitled ' Honey Drops, 
or Crystal Streams,' and sometimes printed along with the 
others." 

It thus appears, that Dickson was the author of several 
poems ; that these poems had been often printed ; that they 
had obtained a considerable circulation "among country 
people and servants," by whom they were much prized and 
cherished ; and that among these was the poem, beginning 
with " O Mother dear, Jerusalem ! " There is, of course, no 
difficulty in verifying this production, as it has been so 
often reproduced in print, and has had such wide currency 
among the churches of Scotland, where the memory of its 
author is so reverently cherished. 

Tlie poem consists of 248 lines, in thirty-one double stan- 
zas, of C. M., or in " the Common tune of the Psalms." The 
theme and its treatment are, doubtless, derived from the 
old Latin versifiers of the mediaeval period of the Church, 
with whom Dickson was familiar. They may have been 
suggested by the anonymous Latin hymn of 48 lines, writ- 



192 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ten, it is thouglit, in the eightli century, and beginning 
with 

' ' Urbs beata Hierusalem, 
Dicta pacis visio " ; 

and more particularly by the latter part of Hildebert's 
grand hymn to the Trinity, and Bernard de Clugny's in- 
comparable poem on " The Contempt of the World," 

"Hie breve vivitur," etc. 

These again were undoubtedly derived from the prose writ- 
ings of Gregory the Great, and the 25th chapter of the 
"Meditations" of St. Augustine, beginning with "Mater 
Hierusalem, civitas sancti Dei, charissima sponsa Christi, te 
amat cor meum," etc. ; on which Cardinal Peter Damianus 
based his " Hymn on the Glory of Paradise," 

"Ad perennis vitae fontem mens sitivit arida," etc. 

It has generally been supposed that Dickson was the first 
to give expression to these glowing views of the New Jeru- 
salem, in English verse. But, in 1852, the Rev. Horatius 
Bonar, D.D., then of Kelso, Scotland, in a Monogram on 
this Hymn, stated that he had found in the British Museum 
a manuscript volume of religious songs, without date, but 
apparently written in the early part of the seventeenth 
century, in which is contained a copy of a portion of this 
very poem, with the title, "A Song made by F. B. P., to 
the Tune of Diana." Nothing appears to be known of the 
origin of this volume or of the " Song " itself, much less of 
"F. B. P." It is evident, at a glance, that the coi^yist has 
borrowed his " Song " from Dickson, or that Dickson him- 
seK is the borrower. Which is the most probable ? 

Dickson's Poem has 31 double stanzas,— 248 lines ; " P. 
B. P." has only 26 single stanzas,— 104 lines. Of Dickson's, 
only 16 double stanzas are reproduced by " F. B. P.," and 
these with marked variations, in the phraseology, and in 
the order of the stanzas and lines, just such as might be 
accounted for by an imperfect memory. No attempt is 
made to reproduce the last 15 double stanzas ; there is 



DAVID DICKSON. I93 

notMng in "F. B. P.'s" "Song" to answer to them. A 
careful comparison of the two productions will Justify the 
conclusion, that the Museum copy is the result of an en- 
deavor to commit to writing so much of Dickson's hymn as 
could be remembered, either by the copyist, or by some 
one of his friends. 

Dr. Bonar shows, from internal evidence, that the Museum 
volume was written probably as late as 1616 ; it may, for 
aught that appears, have been written much later. Now at 
that date (1616) Dickson was at least thirty-three years old, 
and a Professor of Philosophy. He was, moreover, a man 
of too much scholarship and conscience to be a plagiarist. 
His claim to be regarded as the author of the " New Jeru- 
salem" hymn is not to be set aside on such insufficient 
grounds. The unknown "F. B. P." is the copyist, not the 
well-known Dickson. 

An abridgment of the hymn (in 8 single stanzas) was 
published by the Rev. William Burkitt, in his "Poor 
Man's Help, and Young Man's Guide : Also Divine Hymns 
on Several Occasions." The Preface is dated, "Dedham, 
1693." A part of Burkitt's hymn is taken from Rev. John 
Mason's SOtli hymn. Another abridgment, containing 20 
of Dickson's stanzas, appears in the February Number of 
The Gentleman^ s Magazine, for 1798, which probably gave 
occasion to the brief one in " Williams and Boden's Collec- 
tion," 1801. 

David Dickson was the only child of John Dick, or Dick- 
son, a jDious and wealthy merchant of Glasgow, Scotland, 
where David was born, about 1583. He received a thorough 
education at the University of Glasgow, where he took, in 
course, the degrees of A.B. and A.M. In 1610, he was ap- 
pointed Regent or Professor of Philosophy in the same 
University, devoting himself, with his associates, Messrs. 
Boyd and Blair, to the revival of godliness among the un- 
dergraduates. He was ordained, in 1618, to the pastoral 
charge of Irvine, Ayrshire, the birthplace, long after, of the 
poet, James Montgomery. Here he labored with great suc- 
cess until January, 1622, when he was deposed for non- 
13 



194 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH." 

compliance witli tlie Perth. Articles, and banished to Tur- 
riff. In July, 1623, lie was permitted to return to his 
parish, where he remained, in the faithful and successful 
discharge of his parochial duties, until 1641, when he was 
appointed Professor of Divinity in the University of Glas- 
gow. In the great Stewarton Revival (1625-1630), he had 
taken an active and leading part. He was Moderator of 
the General Assembly, in 1639. In the records of the Uni- 
versity he is styled, " Doctor et Professor SS. Theologise." 
Though entitled to it, he never used the designation of D.D. 

He remained at Glasgow until 1650, when he was trans- 
ferred to the Divinity Chair in the University of Edinburgh. 
He took a prominent part in the public affairs of the coun- 
try during the period of the Commonwealth, and having, 
at the Restoration, refused to take the oath of supremacy, 
he was deprived of his Professorship. He died in Decem- 
ber, 1662, having lived nearly fourscore years. He ranked 
among the ablest and most influential ministers of his na- 
tive land. 

Among his publications were, " A Commentary on the He- 
brews," " on Matthew," " on the Psalms," and " on the Epis- 
tles, Latin and English"; " Therai)eutica Sacra: or Cases 
of Conscience Resolved," in Latin and in English ; also, " A 
Treatise on the Promises." He left many other works in 
manuscript. After a long life devoted to his Master's ser- 
vice, his prayer was granted, as he had expressed it in his 
" New Jerusalem ": 

' ' Oh ! liappy thousand times were I, 

If, after wretched days, 
I might, with listening- ears, conceive 

Those heavenly songs of praise, 
Which to th' eternal King are sung 

By happy wights above, 
By saved souls and angels sweet, 

Who love the God of love. 

" Yet once again I pray thee. Lord ! 
To quit me from all strife. 
That to thy hill I may attain, 
And dwell there all my life, 



WILLIAM CHATTEETON DIX. 195 

Witli clierubims and seraphinas, 

And holy souls of men, 
To sing thy praise, O God of hosts ! 

For ever, and Amen." 



WILLIAM CHATTERTON DIX. 

1837 . 

The revival and spread of Ritualism in tlie Churcli of 
England liave given birtli and currency to a mediaeval style 
of modern liymnology, Mr. Dix's poetry is of this char- 
acter. He is the son of Mr, John R. Dix, of Bristol, Eng- 
land, where he was born, June 14, 1837. His father was a 
surgeon, and a man of letters, having, at various times, 
published, "Lays of Home," "Local Legends of Bristol," 
" Progress of Intemperance," and a " Life of Thomas Chat- 
terton," that juvenile prodigy of Bristol ; he seems to have 
migrated to America, where he died several years since. 

The son inherits his father's passion for literature. But, 
though well educated at the grammar-school of Bristol, he 
gave himself to mercantile pursuits. About 1863, he re- 
moved to Glasgow, Scotland, and took a desirable position 
in a Marine Insurance Office. He has contributed hymns 
to several Collections: to " St. Raphael's Hymnal" (1861) ; 
three hymns to " Lyi^a Eucharistica " (1863) ; twenty-one 
to " Lyra Messianica " (1865) ; and others to an " Illustrated 
Book of Poems " (1867), Several of his hymns are trans- 
lations from the Greek. One of his best is his Christmas 
Hymn, entitled, " The Manger-Throne," the first two stan- 
zas of which follow : 

" Like silver lamps in a distant shrine. 

The stars are sparkling clear and bright ; 

The bells of the City of God ring out. 
For the Son of Mary was born to-night ; 

The gloom is past, and the morn at last 
Is coming with orient light. 



196 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Never fell melodies half so sweet, 

As those which are filling the skies ; 

And never a palace shone half so fah', 
As the manger-bed where om- Saviour lies: 

No night in the year is half so dear, 
As this which has ended our sighs." 



GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE. 

1799-1859. 

George Washiistgton^ Doane, D.D., LL.D., was pre- 
eminently fitted to be a leader and ruler of men. As a 
bishop of the Episcopal Churcli lie greatly magnified liis 
office, and made full proof of liis ministry. Among liis 
peers, lie was peerless in magnetic power and episcopal 
grace. He was one of the notables of his generation. 

He was born at Trenton, N. J., May 27, 1799. In his 
childhood, the family, who were Episcopalians, removed to 
New York City, and he was sent to the school of the Rev. 
Dr. Edmund Barry, of linguistic fame. In his tenth year, 
his father became a resident of Geneva, N. Y., where the 
son entered Mr. Hubbell's school, and was fitted for college. 
He graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., in 
1818, with distinguished honor. 

His attention was now turned to the law, and, for a short 
time, he pursued his studies in the office of Richard Har- 
rison, Esq., of New York City. But, under the influence 
of Prof, (afterwards Bishop) Brownell, then of New York 
City, he abandoned the laAv, and joined a theological class 
under the care and teaching of Bishop Hobart, Dr. Jarvis, 
and Prof. BroAvnell. At the same time, he devoted several 
hours daily to teaching, for the support of his mother and 
sisters. 

He was ordained, April 19, 1821, a deacon, by Bishop 
Hobart, in Christ Church, N. Y. ; was presently appointed 
an assistant minister of Trinity Church, N. Y. ; and was 



GEOEGE WASHINGTON DOANE. 197 

ordained to the priesthood, August 6, 1823, also, by Bishop 
Hobart, in Trinity Church. In September, 1824, he became 
Professor of Belles-Lettres and Oratory, in the newly-organ- 
ized Washington (now Trinity) College, Hartford, Conn. 
To secure funds for the college, he travelled extensively in 
the Southern States. He was now associated with the Rev. 
William Croswell in editing the Einscopal Watchman. 
A close and intimate life-long friendship was formed be- 
tween them. Bishop Doane named, for his friend, one of 
his sons, who is now the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese 
of Albany. The same year (1824), he published his " Songs 
by the Way, chiefly Devotional ; with Translations and 
Imitations," — in which appear the two well-known hymns : 

"Softly now the light of day," etc., 
and 

" Thou art the Way; — to thee alone," etc. 

His contributions to the Watchman, also, were frequent. 

In 1828, he accepted a call from Trinity Church, Boston, 
as Assistant to the Rev. Dr. John S. J. Gardiner, at whose 
decease, July 29, 1830, he was chosen in his place, as Rector. 
In 1829, he married Miss Eliza Greene Perkins. His church 
was the most influential of the denomination in the city, 
and he occupied a commanding position, filling it with 
credit and honor. On the death (July 26, 1832) of the ven- 
erable Bishop Croes, of New Jersey, Mr. Doane was chosen 
(October 3) his successor, and (October 31) he was duly con- 
secrated as the Second Episcox)al Bishop of ]N"ew Jersey. 
He fixed his residence at Burlington, N". J., and, the fol- 
lowing year, became the Rector of St. Mary's Church, of 
that town. He now entered on a remarkable career of 
Episcopal enterprise, labor, and prerogative, scarcely paral- 
leled in the history of the American Church. 

He founded (1837) a Church School for Girls (St. Mary's 
Hall), over Avhich he presided and watched with great assi- 
duity and zeal. To obtain a training-school for his minis- 
terial candidates, he founded, in 1846, and presided over, 
Burlington College. His financial projects, entered into 



198 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

witli cliaracteristic ardor, but with a lack of commercial 
foresight and prudence, involved liim in serious pecuniary 
embarrassments, resulting in painful controversy, and judi- 
cial proceedings on the part of the Church authorities. 

His attachments were ardent and faithful, especially 
towards the young, with whom he was a great favorite. 
He was in full sympathy with the Oxford Tractarians, and, 
on a visit to England, in 1841, was received with distin- 
guished honor. As one result of Tractarianism, he had 
occasion to mourn over the perversion of his eldest son to 
the Church of Rome. 

He stamped his own image on the Diocese of New Jer- 
sey. Under his administration, its clergy increased from 
eighteen to ninety -nine, its parishes from thirty to eighty- 
four, and its communicants from six hundred and fifty- 
seven to five thousand ; while the annual offerings rose 
from less than four hundred to fifty thousand dollars. He 
abounded in labors, and was, in consequence, prematurely 
cut off. He died, after a short illness, at his " Riverside" 
home, Burlington, April 27, 1859, nearly sixty years old. 

His Biograjjhy, Poems, Sermons, Charges, and numerous 
other writings, were published (1860) by his son, Bishop 
Doane, of Albany. One of his sweetest poems, written in 
Northfield Vicarage, England, 1841, is here subjoined : 

"hoc eeat iisr voTis." 

"This was in all my prayers, since first I prayed: — 
A Parsonage, in a sweet garden's shade ; 
The Church adjoining, witli its ivied tower ; 
A peal of bells, a clock to tell the hour ; 
A rustic flock, to feed from day to day. 
And kneel with them, at morn, and eve, and pray. 
He, who ' doth all things well,' denied my prayer, 
And hade me take th' Apostle's staff and hear, 
The scattered sheep o'er hill and dale pursue. 
Feed the old flocks and gather in the new ; 
Count ease, and health, and life, and all things loss, 
So I make knoAvn the blessed bleeding Cross. - 
These quiet scenes, that never can be mine. 
This homebred happiness, dear friend ! be thine ; 



JOHN DOBELL. 199 

Each clioicest gift, and influence from above, 
Descend on thee, and all that share thy love ; 
Peace, which the world gives not, nor can destroy, 
The prelibation of eternal joy." 



JOHN DOBELL. 

1757-1840. 

JoHisr DoBELL was the compiler of "A New Selection of 700 
Evangelical Hymns, for Private, Family, and Public Wor- 
ship (many original) from more than 200 of the best Authors 
in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America; arranged in 
alphabetical order, intended as a Supplement to Dr. Watts's 
Psalms and Hymns": published at London, 1806. A 
second edition, enlarged to 800 hymns, appeared in 1812. 
An American edition was issued, in 1822, at Morristown, 
N. J., and extensively patronized. Several editions were 
published in England. 

He was induced to make the Selection, at the suggestion 
of a pious young lady in Cornwall, whom he visited in 
sickness, and who said to him, " I wish I could see before 
I die a HjTnn-Book full of Christ and his Gospel, and 
without any mixture of free-will or merit." The work 
was " the labor of years, and the choice of many thousand 
hymns"; many of them were furnished to him in manu- 
script. Some of the hymns he abridged ; to some, he added 
stanzas of his own, indicated by single inverted commas ; 
and twenty of them are from his own pen. Among these 
is the favoriibe hymn, much used in revivals of religion, 

beginning, 

"Now is th' accepted time," etc. 

He gave, also, the names of the authors, as correctly as 
possible, or of the " Collection" from which the hymn was 
taken. It was, in many respects, a valuable " Selection." 
Dobell's early history is not accessible. He was born in 



200 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

1757, and resided at Poole, Dorsetshire, England. He held 
a position, as port-ganger, under tlie Board of Excise. He 
was a Dissenter, and attached to the Skinner Street Chapel, 
of which the Rev. Edward Ashbnrner, and, after him, the 
Rev. Thomas Dnrant, were pastors. His form was tall, and 
quite conspicuous ; and as his " Selection " was in use by 
the congregation, he was familiarly called, " Old Do-bell. " 
He died at Poole, in his eighty-fourth year, and was buried 
there, June 1, 1840. 

He published (1807) a book on " Baptism," and (1812) an- 
other on " Humanity.'' In 1828, he published two volumes, 
the first of which he called " The Christian's Golden Treas- 
ure, or Gospel Comfort for Doubting Minds," containing 
124 hymns, " many of them original " ; the second he called 
" Tlie Christian's Companion in his Journey to Pleaven," 
containing a number of religious Essays, each of which is 
illustrated by an original poetic composition, — of which the 
following stanzas are a fair specimen : 

" God will advance his saints 
To thrones of heavenly bliss, 
Where each shall wear a starry crown 
Of perfect righteousness. 

' ' With Jesus they shall dwell, 
Released from toil and care, 
Far from the reach of sm and hell, 
And every hurtful snare. 

" Through an eternal day, 

Their happy souls shall rest. 
There God shall wipe their tears away, 
And take them to his rest." 



ANNA [SCHINDLER] DOBER. 

1713-1739. 

Mrs. Dobee's maiden name was Anna Schindler. She 
was born, April 9, 1713, at Kunewalde, Moravia. At an 



PHILIP DODDRIDGE. 201 

early age she became connected with, the settlement of 
" The United Brethren " at Herrnhnt, — founded by Count 
Zinzendorf, in 1722, She was distinguished for her ardent 
piety. Her husband, John Leonard Dober, to whom she 
was married, July 13, 1737, had been a Moravian mission- 
ary at St. Thomas, in the West Indies, and after two years' 
[1732-1734] arduous service, had been recalled to occupy 
the position of the General Eldership, or Superintendent 
of the whole mission work of the Brethren, at home and 
abroad. Her mission was soon fulfilled, as she was taken 
to rest, December 12, 1739, at Marienborn. 

Several of her hymns were included in The Brethren's 
Collection, translations of seven of which found their way 
into the Hymn-Book of the United Brethren in England, 
and some of them are found, also, in the American Book. 
They are characterized by great spirituality, holy fervor, 
and ardent devotion to the person and kingdom of the 
Redeemer. 



PHILIP DODDRIDGE. 

1702-1751. 

Beyond all question, the name of Doddridge is to be 
classed with the names of the most honored of the Poets 
of the Sanctuary, — Watts, Wesley, Steele, Newton, Cowper, 
and Kelly — names that will never die. 

Philip Doddridge was the grandson of the Rev. John 
Doddridge, of Shepperton, Middlesex, England, who was 
ejected from his parish, by the celebrated " Act of Unifor- 
mity," in 1662. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. John 
Bauman, of Prague, Bohemia, who was, also, a sufferer for 
conscience' sake in his native land, and who, on his arrival, 
a poor exile, in England, about 1626, became the master of 
a free school, at Kingston-uiDon-Thames, where he died 
(1688) at an advanced age. Bauman's only child became the 



202 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

wife of Jolm Doddridge's son, Daniel, and the mother of liis 
twenty children. Of these children, all, except a daugh- 
ter, and Philip, the youngest, died in infancy. The daugh- 
ter became the wife of the Rev. John Nettleton, a Dissent- 
ing minister of Ongar, Essex, and died in 1734. 

Daniel Doddridge resided at London, and was a dealer 
in oil. Both he and his wife were devotedly pious. Philip 
was born June 26, 1702. At his birth, he was supposed to 
be dead, but, by assiduous pains-taking, the life was feebly 
developed, — a feebleness from which he never fully recov- 
ered. " I was brought up," he says, " in the early knowl- 
edge of religion, by my pious parents, who were, in their 
character, very worthy of their birth and education ; and 
I well remember, that my mother taught me the history of 
the Old and New Testaments before I could read, by the 
assistance of some blue Dutch tiles in the chimney-place 
of the room where we commonly sat ; and the wise and 
pious reflections she made upon those stories, were the 
means of enforcing such good impressions on my heart 
as never afterwards wore out." Both of his parents died 
in 1715. 

At an early age, he was sent to a school in London, 
taught by the Rev. Mr. Stott. Tlien, at ten, he went to 
the school at Kingston-upon-Thames, formerly his grand- 
father's. At his father's death, he was sent to the school 
of the Rev. Nathaniel Wood, at St. Albans, about twenty 
miles north of London. Here he enjoyed the pastoral care 
of the excellent and eminent Rev. Samuel Clark, noted for 
his book on " The Promises," and, February 1, 1718, he 
united with the church, at St. Albans. 

His patrimony was lost by the mismanagement of his 
guardian. At the suggestion of his uncle, Philip Dodd- 
ridge, Esq., who had been steward for the Duke of Bed- 
ford until his death in 1711, the Dowager Duchess of 
Bedford kindly expressed her readiness to give him a Uni- 
versity Education, and provide him a living, if he \tould 
conform to the Church of England. But, for conscience' 
sake, he declined the offer. He thought of studying, as 



PHILIP DODDEIDGE. 203 

advised by Rev. Dr. Calamy, for tlie law. But an unex- 
pected offer from liis pastor, Mr. Clark, to be at charges 
for Ills education, ended his perplexity. He now entered 
(1719) the Academy of the Rev. John Jennings, at Kib- 
worth, Harconrt, Leicestershire. The school was removed 
in 1722 to Hinckley. 

Here, July 22, 1722, he was licensed to preach, though he 
stUl continued his studies. In the spring of 1723, he was 
called both to Coventry and to Kibworth. The call from 
the latter, though the humbler place, he accepted, that he 
might have more time to study. He was settled there 
June, 1723, and gave himself heartily to his work. " It is 
one of the most unj)olite congregations I ever knew," he 
says, " consisting almost entirely of farmers and graziers, 
with their subalterns. I have not so much as a tea-table 
in my diocese, although above eight miles in extent, and 
but one hoop-petticoat in the whole circuit," . . . . " and 
were it not for talking to the cattle, admiring the poultry, 
and preaching twice every Sabbath, I should certainly lose 
the organs of speech." " Kitty Freeman," a young damsel 
of the vicinity, won his heart, and then rejected him. It 
was overruled to his greater sanctification. 

He took board, June, 1725, with Mrs. Jennings (the widow 
of his late teacher), at Market Harborough, six miles from 
Kibworth, and greatly enjoyed the change. He would have 
married Miss Jennings, but she preferred Mr. Aikin, and 
became the mother of Anna Lsetitia [Aikin] Barbauld. Mr. 
Jennings had died in 1723, and his Academy was suspended. 
It was revived, mainly through the influence of Dr. Isaac 
Watts, and, April 10, 1729, put under the care of Dodd- 
ridge. Soon after, in addition, he became the assistant of 
the Rev. Mr. Some, of Harborough. This was followed 
(September, 1729) by a call from the Castle Hill congrega- 
tion at Northampton. Thither, at the end of three months, 
he removed with his school, and entered upon the perform- 
ance of his life-work. 

He was ordained to the ministry, March 19, 1730 ; and, 
at the close of the year, received in marriage, Miss Mercy 



204 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Maris, a lady of superior qualifications. They were favored 
with nine children, fonr only of whom, with their mother, 
outlived the father. In the indefatigable discharge of his 
duties as pastor and teacher, he passed more than a score 
of years, eminently useful and greatly honored. In Decem- 
ber, 1750, at the funeral of his old pastor. Rev. Dr. Clark, 
St. Albans, he contracted a severe cold, which seized upon 
his lungs, and issued in pulmonary consumption. He 
sought relief successively at London, at Shrewsbury, at 
Bristol, at Bath, but all in vain. A purse of £400 was 
secured for him by his endeared friend, the Coimtess of 
Huntingdon, and, \rith his beloved wife, he left in October, 
1751, for Lisbon. Less than two weeks after his arrival, he 
l^assed away, October 26th, in the 50th year of his age. 

Doddridge "was above the middle stature, extremely 
thin and slender," but sprightly and vivacious. He was 
one of the most amiable of men. His manners were studi- 
ously polite, and his whole bearing exceedingly courteous. 
Of a kind disposition and tender heart, he was always say- 
ing and doing pleasant and agreeable things, gaining thus 
the good graces of all who knew him. In his abounding 
sympathy, he was ever ready to deny himself for the good 
of others. His piety was pre-eminent. His daily journal 
of spiritual exercises, kept from early life, everywhere ex- 
hibits his extreme conscientiousness in the discharge of 
Christian duty, and his growing desire and endeavor for 
greater holiness. He was full of zeal for the advancement 
of religion, and especially for the conversion of sinners. 
To this end, he preached, and wrote, and labored, to the last. 

His intellectual attainments, also, were rem.arkable. 
Blessed with an excellent memory, ardent in the pursuit 
of knowledge, and of inflexible purpose, he made himself 
familiar with the current literature of the day, and with 
the great masters in theology and philosophy. Avaricious, 
not of his earnings which he generously distributed, but of 
every moment of time, he wrote and published numerous 
treatises, sermons, addresses, and weighty volumes, mostly 
on topics connected with his holy calling. He corresponded 



PHILIP DODDRIDGE. 205 

continually with a large number of ministerial and literary 
acquaintances, and often at great length. He taught, more- 
over, about 200 pupils in twenty-two years, of whom about 
120 entered the ministry. At the same time, he i)erformed 
the duties of his parochial charge with exemplary fidelity, 
preaching with frequency and power, and ever watching 
for souls. 

His literary i)roficiency brought him, in 1736, the hon- 
orary degree of D.D., from the Marischal College of Aber- 
deen, Scotland. Three years later (1739), he issued the first 
volume of his "Family Expositor, or a Paraphrase and 
Version of the New Testament, with Critical Notes, and a 
Practical Improvement of each Section." The fifth and 
sixth volumes, published in 1756, after his death, completed 
a work that continues, even now, to be read with interest 
and profit. His most profound and elaborate work, " A 
Course of Lectures on the Princix)al Subjects of Pneuma- 
tology. Ethics and Divinity, with References to the most 
considerable Authors on each Subject," was published 
(1763) twelve years after his decease. 

But the work by which he is, and ever must be, best 
known, is his eminently practical volume, " The Rise and 
Progress of Religion in the Soul " (17o0). Thousands on 
earth and in heaven can unite in ascriptions of j^raise to 
God for the benefits received from this book, in their in- 
quiries for the way of salvation ; it has led them to the 
cross of Christ for pardon and eternal life. It has been 
published in almost numberless editions in our own lan- 
guage, and in the languages of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
the Islands of the Sea. It is one of the few immortal books. 

Many of Doddridge's hymns, also, are destined to im- 
mortality. Nearly all of them were composed in con- 
nection with his sermons, to be " lined out " and sung at 
the close of one of his Sabbath exercises, by his Chapel- 
Hill flock. The text of the sermon is prefixed to the 
hymn. The sermon was soon forgotten ; but the h^Tun 
was caught up, recorded, committed to memory, and often 
reproduced. " If aniber," says the Rev. Dr. James Hamil- 



206 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ton, " is tlie gum of fossil trees, fetched up and floated off 
by tlie ocean, liyinns like these are a spiritual amber. 
Most of the sermons to which they originally pertained 
have disappeared forever; but, at once beautiful and 
buoyant, these sacred strains are destined to carry the de- 
vout emotions of Doddridge to every shore where his Mas- 
ter is loved, and where his mother- tongue is si)oken." 

The greater part of his hymns were written between 1735 
and 1740. They were published, in 1755, by his friend and 
biographer. Rev. Job Orton, with the title, " Hymns Founded 
on Various Texts in Holy Scriptures. By the late P. Dodd- 
ridge, D.D. Published from the Author's Manuscripts, by 
Job Orton." The book contains 374 hymns. Montgomery 
says of them : " They shine in the beauty of holiness ; these 
offsprings of his mind are arrayed in ' the fine linen, pure 
and white, which is the righteousness of saints ' ; and, like 
the saints, they are lovely and acceptable, not for their 
human merit (for in poetry and eloquence they are fre- 
quently delicient), but for that fervent, unaffected love to 
God, his service, and his people, which distinguishes them. " 
A few of the many that he wrote are among the best in our 
books of Praise. 

"Lord of the Sabbath! hear our vows," etc., 

is the first line of a hymn, that, in most of the modern Col- 
lections, begins with the second stanza, 

"Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord! we love," etc. 

It was composed to be sung, January 2, 1737, after a sermon 
on Heb. iv. 9. 

" O God of Bethel, by whose hand," etc., 

was written to follow a sermon on " Jacob's Vow," January 
16, 1737. In an altered form, it is found among " Logan's 
Poems " (1781), and so was numbered among the " Transla- 
tions and Paraphrases " of the Church of Scotland. 

"Shepherd of Israel! bend thine ear," etc., 



PHILIP DODDRIDGE. 207 

was coini)osed, April 10, 1735, " at a Meeting of Ministers 
at Bedworth," Warwickshire, " during their long vacancy." 

"Let Zion's watclimen all awake," etc., 

was composed, October 21, 1736, for an ordination at Floore, 
Northamptonshire. 

"Now, let our mourning hearts revive," etc., 

is headed, " Comfort in God under the Removal of Minis- 
ters or other Useful Persons by Death," to follow a sermon, 
August 22, 1736, on Joshua i. 2, 4, 5, occasioned by the death 
of a minister at Kettering, Northamptonshire. 

"Gird on thy conquering sword," etc., 

is a hymn of five stanzas, on Psalm xlv, 3, 4, beginning with 

" Loud to the Prince of heaven." 

The plaintive and highly expressive lament, 

" Ai'ise, my tenderest thoughts! arise," etc., 

was written for a sermon, June 10, 1739, on " Beholding 
Transgressors with Grief," from Psalm cxix. 136, 158. 

"Indulgent Sovereign of the skies! " etc., 

was written " For a Fast-Day ; or, a Day of ^^rayer for the 
Revival of Religion," to accompany a sermon on Isa. Ixii. 
6, 7. That splendid burst of holy song, — 

"While on the verge of life I stand," etc., 

on " The Happiness of departing, and being with Christ, 
Philippians i. 23," — was suggested by a dream of entering 
heaven, and enjoying a beatific vision of the glorified Re- 
deemer ; and the dream was occasioned by a conversation, 
the previous evening, with his old pastor, the Rev. Samuel 
Clark, D.D., on the happiness of disembodied saints. 

These are, by no means, his best hymns, but are noticed 
because their date or occasion is known. Dr. Samuel 
Johnson says : " Doddridge was author of one of the finest 
epigrams in the English language. It is in Orton's Life of 



208 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

liim. The subject is his family motto,—' Bum mvimus vi- 
vamus,^ wMcli, in its primary signification, is, to be sure, 
not very suitable to a Christian divine ; but he paraphrased 
it thus : — 

' Live while you live, the Epicm^e would say, 
And seize the pleasures of the present day: 
Live while you live, the sacred Preacher ci'ies, 
And give to God each moment as it flies : 
Lord ! in my views let both united he, 
I live in pleasure, when I live to thee.' " 

In addition to the publications already named, Doddridge 
issued a volume of " Ten Sermons on the Power and Grace 
of Christ ; or Evidences of his glorious Gospel " (1736) ; 
" Eighteen Practical Sermons on Regeneration ; to which 
are added two Sermons on Salvation by Grace through 
Faith " (1741) ; " Of the Evidences of Christianity, in An- 
swer to Christianity not Founded on Argument " (1742-3) ; 
" Four Sermons on the Religious Education of Children " 
(1743) ; and " Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of 
Col. James Gardiner" (1746); besides his "Principles of the 
Christian Religion, in Plain and Easy Verse," and many 
Occasional Sermons. His collected Works were published, 
at Leeds (1802), in ten volumes ; and his " Private Corre- 
spondence arwi Diary " (1829), in five volumes. 



DAVID T. K. DRUMMOND. 

Mr. Drummond, the youngest son of Mr. James Drum- 
mond, of Aberuchill, Perthshire, was born at Edinburgh, 
Scotland. He was educated at Oxford and took orders 
(1830) in the Church of England. For two years, he 
ministered in the neighborhood of Bristol. In 1832, 
he became one of the ministers of Trinity Chapel, Dean 
Bridge, Edinburgh, in connection with the Scottish Epis- 



DAVID T. K. DEUMMOND. 209 

copal Church. Evangelical in his sympathies, he took an 
active part in the promotion of Sunday- Schools, Missions, 
the publication and circulation of Religious Tracts, and 
every other good work. He devoted himself to the spirit- 
ual welfare of his flock, and sought most earnestly the con- 
version of souls. He procured the use of Clyde Street Hall, 
and conducted there a weekly prayer-meeting, during the 
winter season, with extemporaneous prayer, discarding the 
use of the Scotch Liturgy. A weekly Bible Class for young 
men was conducted in the same manner. He fraternized, 
also, with the city clergy of the Establishment (Presbyte- 
rian) in addressing public religious meetings. He proved 
himself a true gospel preacher. 

For his freedom in these respects, he received (October 3, 
1842) an admonition from his diocesan, Rt. Rev. Charles 
Hughes Terrot, the Episcopal Bishoj) of Edinburgh. At 
the close of a long correspondence, Mr. Drummond resigned 
his charge, the same month ; and, withdrawing from the 
Scottish EiDiscopal Church, announced his determination 
to continue to minister in Edinburgh as a minister of the 
Church of England. He was sustained by a large number 
of his former flock, who, also, withdrew, and organized, in 
November following, St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, of 
which he became the pastor. 

Mr. Drummond greatly commended himself for his re- 
ligious zeal and catholic principles. Among other works, 
he published, "Episcopacy in Scotland in 1845," "Last 
Scenes in the Life of Christ," and " Memoirs of Montagu 
Stanley " (1848). Of his hymn on " God is Love," the flrst 
three stanzas are here given : 

"What is the Lord ? Survey the world, — 

Each hill, each vale, each stream, each gi'ove; 
From every rock, and field, and tree, 
A voice replies, that ' God is love.' 

' ' What is the Lord ? Gaze through the skies, — 
On yon bright orbs which ceaseless move 
In glorious maze — still, as they roll, 

They chant the song, that ' God is love.' 
14 



210 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH, 

"What is the Lord ? Look to the place 
Where glory sits enthroned above ; 
Ten thousand times ten thousand there 
Cry, with one voice, that ' God is love.' " 



JOHN DRYDEN. 

1631-1700. 

Small claim lia^ Dryden, eminent as he was in his day, 
to be classed among the hymnists of the Chiirch. His 
poetic talent, during the larger iDart of his literary career, 
was prostituted to the encouragement of the fashionable 
vices of the day. A large part of his dramatic poetry is 
unfit to be read. He was too much of a courtier to think 
of stemming the flood of licentiousness that poured over 
England in the days of the Restoration. 

His father, Erasmus Driden (the poet substituted " y "), 
was a strict Puritan, of an ancient family, residing at Ald- 
winckle, Northamptonshire, where, August 9, 1631, John, 
the eldest of fourteen children, was born. A baronetcy had 
been conferred, by James I., on his grandfather, Erasmus. 
The boy, at an early age, became the pupil of the celebra- 
ted Dr. Richard Busby, Head Master of Westminster 
School, London, giving evidence, while there, of his talent 
for versification. Entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in 
1650, he graduated, A.B., in 1654, and A.M., in 1657. His 
kinsman. Sir Gilbert Pickering, of Cromwell's council, pro- 
cured for him a petty clerkship in London. At the death 
of Cromwell, in 1658, he wrote, in celebration of the great 
Protector, his vigorous " Heroic Stanzas." 

Like the famous " Vicar of Bray," his devotions were 
paid to " the rising sun." The Restoration of the dissolute 
Charles II. (1660) was hailed with his congratulatory " As- 
trsea Redux," and his coronation (1661) with a " Panegyrick." 



JOHN DRYDEN. 211 

He was chosen (November, 1662) a member of the Eoyal 
Society. He now began to w^ite for the stage, and com- 
posed (1662-1694), in whole or in part, twenty-seven dramas. 

In November, 1663, he married the Lady Elizabeth, a 
sister of Sir Robert Howard (his early patron), and the 
eldest daughter of the Earl of Berkshire, — an event that 
added but little to his domestic comfort. At Charlton, the 
Earl's seat in Wiltshire, he wrote (1667) his " Annus Mira- 
bilis "— an Account of the " Great Fire " and other wonders of 
1666. His " Essay on Dramatic Poesy " came out the same 
year. " Rare Sir William " Davenant, died Ai^ril 7, 1668 ; 
and Dry den, having already been acknowledged as the first 
dramatist of the day, succeeded him as Poet Laureate. He 
was also appointed Royal Historiographer. Each of the 
two offices brought him annually £100. His inlays occux^ied 
him the next twelve years. 

He now entered upon a new literary career. His style 
was purer, his verse more natural, his thought more ele- 
vated and vigorous. His " Absalom and Achitophel," a most 
successful political satire, appeared in 1681, and his " Reli- 
gio Laici," a defence of the Church against Deists, Papists, 
and Presbyterians, in 1682. A royal pension of £100 was 
granted him in 1684. On the accession of James II., he 
once more changed his creed, and, early in 1686, avowed 
himself a Roman Catholic. His " Hind and Panther " was 
written (1687) to defend the Papacy. 

The Revolution (1688) deprived him of his places and 
pension. He now gave himself to the work of translating 
the Latin poets. His " Juvenal " and " Persius " aj)peared 
in 1693, and his " Virgil," in 1697. The latter brought him 
£1,200. His " Fables," and his " Alexander's Feast : or The 
Power of Music. An Ode, in Honor of St. Cecilia's Day " 
(probably his last, and certainly his most brilliant, work), 
appeared in 1700. His health gave way, and May 1, 1700, 
he died of an inilammation of one of his toes, resulting in 
the mortification of his leg. He was honored Avith a grave 
in Westminster Abbey. 

He was associated, in his later years, with Nahum Tate, 



212 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

in tlie production of some of Tate's poems ; and it may 
liave been at the suggestion of the principal author of the 
" New Version of the Psalms," that Dryden wrote the hymn, 

" Creator Spii'it! by whose aid," etc. 

It is a version, spirited and elegant, of the celebrated 
" Veni, Creator Spiritus ! " of Rabanus Maurus, a Latin 
poet of the ninth century. The version of the " Te Deum," 
in the British Wesleyan Collection (Hymns 564, 565, 566), 
generally credited to Dryden, is not his, but Charles Wes- 
ley's. Dryden's version is in heroic verse, and begins with 

" Thee, sovereign God! our grateful accents praise, 
We own thee Lord, and bless thy wondrous ways." 

The following stanzas are commemorative of the Pro- 



' ' His grandeur he derived from Heaven alone ; 
For he was great, ere fortune made him so : 
And wars, like mists that rise against the sun. 
Made him but greater seem, not greater grow. 

"No borrowed bays his temples did adorn, 
But to our crown he did fresh jewels bring ; 
Nor was his virtue poisoned, soon as born. 
With the too early thoughts of being king. 

" Nor died he when his ebbing fame Avent less, 
But when fresh laurels courted hnn to live ; 
He seemed but to prevent some new success. 
As if above what triumphs earth could give. 

"His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest ; 

His name a great example stands, to show 
How strangely high endeavors may be blessed, 
Where piety and valor jointly go." 



GEORGE DUFFIELD. 213 

GEORGE DUFFIELD. 

1818 . 

Geoege Duffield bears an honored name. His father 
and great-grandfather, each of them a George, distinguished 
themselves both as citizens and as ministers of the Presby- 
terian Church. The great-grandfather (1732-1790), the son 
of George, was a zealous and faithful patriot during the 
Revolutionary War, a Chaplain of the Old Congress, and 
a pastor, for seventeen years, of the Third Presbyterian 
Church of Philadelphia. The father (1794-1868) was re- 
garded a,s one of the most able and useful ministers of the 
Presbyterian Church, having been settled in the pastorate, 
successively, at Carlisle, Pa., Philadelphia, New York City, 
and Detroit, Mich. The mother, Isabella Graham Bethune, 
was the daughter of Divie Bethune, Esq., of New York 
City. Their son, George, was born, September 12, 1818, at 
Carlisle, Pa., the home of his youth. 

After a careful preparation, he entered Yale College, in 
1833. and graduated in 1837. Having become a member of 
the Bleecker St. Presbyterian Church of New York, under 
the pastoral care of the Rev. Erskine Mason, D.D., he 
entered Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. (1837), and 
completed (1840) a three-years' course of theology. Shortly 
after he married Miss Augusta, a daughter of Samuel A. 
Willoughby, Esq., of Brooklyn, N. Y., and took the pas- 
toral charge of the Fifth Presbyterian Church of that city. 
He was ordained, December 27, 1840. 

At the end of seven years, he became the pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Bloomfield, N. J. ; five years 
later, he removed to Philadelphia, Pa., and, for nearly nine 
years, had charge of the Central Presbyterian Church of 
the Northern Liberties ; the next four years found him in 
charge of the First Presbyterian Church of Adrian, Mich. ; 
another period of four years was passed as pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Galesburgh, HI. ; four years 



214 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

more were sioent in charge of the Presbyterian Church of 
Saginaw City, Mich. ; at the close of which period, he re- 
tired from the pastoral work, on account of the failure of 
his health, and removed to Ann- Arbor, Mich., where his 
son, Samuel Willoughby Duffield, was then settled, as pas- 
tor of the Presbyterian Church of that town. He received 
the honorary degree of D.D. in 1871, from Knox College, 
Galesburgh, 111. 

Dr. Duffield has been a frequent contributor to the 
periodical press, and is the author of several pamjohlets ; 
but is chiefly known in literature as the author of several 
excellent hymns and other poetic effusions. The hymn, 

"Blessed Savioui' ! thee I love," etc., 

was contributed by him to the " Supplement " of the 
" Church Psalmist," Philadelphia, 1859. The very popular 
hymn, 

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus," etc., 

was suggested by the last words of the Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, 
Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, Phila. , who died, 
in the prime of his youth, April 19, 1858 : — " Tell them to 
stand up for Jesus ; now let us sing a hjinn ! " The fifth 
line of the second stanza alludes to a sermon, preached by 
Mr. Tyng, in Philadelphia, from the Text, Ex. x. 11,—" Go 
now, ye that are men, and serve the Lord": — "the most 
powerful sermon," says Dr. Duffield, " in modern times, so 
far as I know ; when the slain of the Lord were many, — 
probably a thousand at least." The 2d and 5th stanzas of 
the original, not generally found in the Collections, are here 
supiDlied : 

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus; 
The solemn watchword hear — 
If, while ye sleep, he suffers, 

Away with shame and fear ; 
Where'er ye meet with evil, 

Within you or without, 
Charge for the God of battles, 
And put the foe to rout. 



EOBINSON POTTER DUNN. 216 

Stand up, stand up for Jesus ; 

Each soldier to his post ; 
Close up the broken column, 

And shout through ail the host; 
Make good the loss so heavy 

In those that ^still remain. 
And prove, to all around you, 

That death itself is gain." 



ROBINSON POTTER DUNN. 

1825-1867. 

Prof. Dui^is" was the son of Dr. Tlieopliilns Dnnn and 
Elizabeth Robinson Potter, of Newport, Rhode Island, 
where he was born, May 31, 1825. His early edncation was 
strictly private. Entering Brown University, Providence, 
R. I., in his fifteenth year, he graduated (1843) as the first 
scholar of his class. He served (1844-1846) the University, 
as teacher of French, and as librarian. He entered the 
Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J., and continued 
his studies for the ministry for two years. In April, 1847, 
he was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick ; 
and, November 1, 1848, was ordained by the Presbytery of 
West- Jersey, as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Camden, N. J. He was married, in September preceding, 
to Maria, the youngest daughter of Mr. John Stille, of 
Philadelphia. She died in 1849. 

In Ai^ril, 1851, he accepted the chair of Rhetoric and 
English Literature in Brown University. In January, 1855, 
he married Mary Stiles, the eldest daughter of Hon. A. 
Dwight Foster, of Worcester, Mass. In 1864, the Univer- 
sity honored him with the degree of D.D. While pass- 
ing his vacation with his parents at Newport, he was taken 
ill with erysipelas, and, on the sixth day, August 28, 1867 
he died, in his forty-third year. 



216 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

He was a fine scliolar, and an admirable teaclier. His 
piety was eminently pure and practical. He wrote for the 
Princeton Remeio and the Blhliotlieca Sacra; and just 
before the time of his decease, was occupied in translating 
and editing one of the volumes of Lange's Commentary. 
He wrote versions, also, of several German and Latin 
hymns. The following stanzas are from his version of the 
German hymn, — " Nein, nein, das ist kein sterben," by A. 
Knapp, from the French of Csesar Malan : 

' ' No, no, it is not dying, 

To go unto our God, 
ThivS gloomy earth forsaking, 
Our journey homeward taking 

Along the starry road. 

" No, no, it is not dying, 

Heaven's citizen to be ; 
A crown immortal wearing, 
And rest unbroken sharing, 

From care and conflict free. 

' ' No, no, it is not dying, 

To hear this gracious word, — 
' Receive a Father's blessing, 
For evermore possessing 
The favor of thy Lord I ' " 



TIMOTHY DWIGHT. 

1752-1817. 

Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., came from a good stock 
—the real aristocracy of New England. He was a descend- 
ant, in the eldest male line, of John Dwight, of Dedham, 
England, who emigrated (1637) to Dedham, Mass. Each 
of his American progenitors was of good repute for piety. 
His father, whose name he bore, was a graduate of Yale 
College (1744), and a man of large proportions and great 



TIMOTHY DWTQHT. 217 

strength. He resided at Northampton, Mass., engaged in 
trade and agriculture, and had a good landed estate. He 
was highly esteemed as a man of vigorous intellect, of pure 
morality, and of fervent piety. His wife, Mary, whom he 
married in her seventeenth year (November 8, 1750), was 
the fourth child of his honored pastor and adjoining neigh- 
bor. Rev. Jonathan Edwards. In maturity of mind, and in 
the extent and variety of her attainments, she was very far 
in advance of her years. 

The son was born, May 14, 1752, at Northampton, In his 
seventh and eighth years, he attended a grammar-school. 
With this exception, he was educated by his mother until 
his twelfth year, when, for a year or more, he studied with 
the Rev, Enoch Huntington, at Middletown, Conn, At 
four, he read with ease and correctness, and at eight, was 
fitted for college. He entered Yale College at thirteen, and 
graduated in 1769, second to none in his class. His pas- 
sion and talent for music and poetry were favorably devel- 
oped while in college. 

He taught a grammar-school in New Haven for two 
years, and was a tutor in the College for six years (1771- 
1777). His " Conquest of Canaan " was completed in 1774, 
though not published until 1785. His application to study, 
at this period, was intense. On his recovery from small- 
pox, for which he had been inoculated, his eyes became so 
seriously injured, by resuming his studies too soon, that, 
" during the great part of forty years, he was not able to 
read fifteen minutes in the twenty -four hours ; and often, 
for days and weeks together, the pain which he endured 
in that part of the head immediately behind the eyes 
amounted to anguish." 

His Master's Oration (1772), " A Dissertation on the His- 
tory, Eloquence, and Poetry of the Bible," was published, 
not only in America, but also in England. In the summer 
and autumn of 1774, he was almost at death's door. The 
same year he became a member of the College Church. He 
married (March, 1777) Miss Mary, the daughter of Benjamin 
Woolsey (of Long Island), his father's room-mate in col- 



218 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

lege. In June of the same year, lie was licensed to preachy 
and, duiing the summer, supplied the pulpit at Kensington, 
Conn. In October, he repaired to West Point, N". Y., as 
chaplain of Parsons' brigade in Putnam's division of the 
Kevolutionary Army. Full of patriotic ardor, he now 
wrote and published that glowing ode, 

"Columbia! Columbia! to glory arise, 
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies," etc., 

and other martial songs. 

His father died at Natchez, Miss., the same year; but 
months elapsed before the knowledge of it reached the 
family. He resigned his chaplaincy in October, 1778, and 
repaired to Northampton, Mass., to settle the estate, and 
to care for his widowed mother and her thirteen childi^en. 
For five years (1778-1783) he took care of the farm ; taught 
a large school ; preached statedly in some of the adjacent 
parishes ; took part in civic affairs ; served, part of the 
time, in the Legislature ; and developed an almost incred- 
ible energy. 

In July, 1783, he took charge of the Greenfield Congre- 
gational Church, in the town of Fairfield, Conn., was or- 
dained pastor, November 5, and opened an Academy, which 
speedily acquired a high reputation. A thousand pupils, 
from every part of the United States, resorted to it within 
the next twelve years. He published (1788) his " Triumph 
of Infidelity, a Poem " (anonymously) ; and (1794) his 
" Greenfield Hill, a Poem, in 7 Parts." In 1787, the honor- 
ary degree of D.D. was conferred on him by the College of 
New Jersey. 

He was chosen, at the decease of the Rev. Dr. Ezra 
Stiles (May 12, 1795), to succeed him as President of Yale 
College, and in September was duly inaugurated. His ac- 
cession was the beginning of a new and brilliant era for the 
College. Students resorted to it from all quarters ; order 
and system were introduced into every department ; the 
l)revalent scepticism was uprooted ; and the standard of 
scholarship greatly elevated. In addition to his ordinary 



TIMOTHY DWIGHT. 2ig 

duties, he served as Professor of Belles-Lettres and Ora- 
tory, and in 1805 was a^^pointed Professor of Theology. 
He was virtually the pastor of the College Church, and 
regularly occupied the pulpit of the chapel twice every 
Sabbath. It was for this service that he prepared his 
"Theology Explained and Defended, in a Series of Ser- 
mons," published (1828) in five volumes. The honorary 
degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him (1810) by Har- 
vard College. 

His "Travels in JSTew England and New York," pub- 
lished (1822) in four volumes, grew out of his vacation 
journeys, undertaken yearly during his Presidency, and 
prosecuted by private conveyances ; a minute Journal of 
what he saw and heard having been kept and carefully 
preserved. They are an invaluable record of facts concern- 
ing the men, the scenery, the occurrences, and the institu- 
tions, as well as the manners and customs, of the period. 

At the request of the General Association of Connecticut, 
June, 1797, Dr. Dwight undertook "to revise Dr. Watts' 
Imitation of the Psalms of David, so as to accommodate 
them to the state of the American Churches ; and to sup- 
ply the deficiency of those Psalms which Dr. Watts had 
omitted." The work was completed in 1799, reported to 
the General Association in June, and referred to a Joint 
Committee of the Association and the Presbyterian Gen- 
eral Assembly. This Committee met at Stamford, Conn., 
June 10, 1800, and, after a careful examination, approved 
the work, and recommended it to the churches. The Pres- 
byterian Assembly of 1802, also approved the work, and 
"cheerfully allowed" it to be used in their churches. 
Thus it was, that, for nearly thirty years, Dwight's Psalm 
and Hymn Book, conjointly with Dr. Watts' Psalms and 
Hymns, was regarded as a Presbyterian Book of Praise. 

The book was published in two Parts : the first, contain- 
ing " the Psalms of David, by I. Watts, D.D. A New Edi- 
tion, in which the Psalms omitted by Dr. Watts are versi- 
fied, local passages are altered, and a number of Psalma 
are versified anew in proper Metres. By Timothy Dwight, 



220 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

D.D." Thirty-three of the versions are Dwight's. The 
second Part is entitled, " Hymns selected from Dr. Watts, 
Br. Doddridge, and various other Writers, according to 
the Recommendation of the Joint Committee of the Gen- 
eral Association of Connecticut and the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church in America. By Timothy 
D^-ight, D.D." The Selection contains 263 hymns, and 
the authors' names, so far as known, are prefixed to each. 
His version of the 137th Psalm, in S. M., has acquired 
great popularity : 

"I love thy kingdom, Lord, 

The house of thine abode," etc. 

Besides the publications already named, he gave to the 
press a large number of occasional Sermons, conspicuous 
among which were " Two Seraions on the JS'ature and Dan- 
ger of Infidel Philosophy," 1799. Two volumes of his Ser- 
mons were published, posthumously, in 1828. During the 
greater part of his public life, he was obliged to employ an 
amanuensis, one or more, selected generally from the Sen- 
ior class of collegians. 

In the midst of his great activity and usefulness, hon- 
ored and beloved by all who knew him, he was seized with 
an acute disorder, February, 1816, which at length, after 
subjecting him to periods of great suffering, resulted, Jan- 
uary 11, 1817, in his death, at the age of sixty-four years. 
His removal was universally regarded as a great public 
calamity. 

The Rev. Dr. Sprague, who was one of his pupils, speaks 
of his form " as stately and majestic, and every way well- 
proportioned. His features were regular, his eye black and 
piercing, yet benignant, and his countenance altogether in- 
dicative of a high order of mind. His voice was rich and 
melodious, adapted alike to music and oratory." 

" He was unquestionably, at that time " (1809), says the 
Hon. S. G. Goodrich, " the most conspicuous man in New 
England, filling a larger space in the public eye, and exerting 
a greater influence, than n,nv other individual. ... In 



TIMOTHY DWIGHT. 



221 



person, lie was about six feet in height, and of a full, round, 

manly form His voice was one of the finest I ever 

have heard from the pulpit — clear, hearty, sympathetic, and 
entering into the soul like the middle notes of an organ." 
He " was, perhaps, even more distinguished in conversation 
than in the pulpit. He was, indeed, regarded as without 
a rival in this respect ; his knowledge was extensive and 
various, and his language eloquent, rich, and flowing. 
.... In society, the imposing grandeur of his personal 
appearance in the pulpit, was softened by a general bland- 
ness of expression and a sedulous courtesy of manner, 
which were always conciliating, and sometimes really cap- 
tivating. His smile was irresistible He was re- 
garded with a species of idolatry by those around him. 
Even the pupils of the college almost adored him." He 
was, in the highest and best sense, one of the very first 
men of the age — the peer of the greatest. 

As a specimen of his poetic powers in youth, the follow- 
ing description of Night, from his " Conquest of Canaan," 
is here given : 

"Now Night, in vestments robed of cloudy dye, 
Witli sable grandeur clothed the orient sky, 
Impelled the sun, obsequious to her reign, 
Down the far mountains to the western main ; 
With magic hand, becalmed the solemn even. 
And drew day's curtain from the spangled heaven. 
. At once the planets sailed around the throne ; 
At once ten thousand worlds in splendor shone ; 
Behind her car, the moon's expanded eye 
Rose from a cloud, and looked around the sky ; 
Far up th' immense her train sublimely roll, 
And dance, and triumph, round the lucid pole. 
Faint shine the fields, beneath the shadowy ray ; 
Slow fades the glimmering of the west away ; 
To sleep the tribes retire ; and not a soimd 
Flows through the air, or mui*mui'S on the groimd." 



222 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 



JOHN EAST. 

John East was a clergyman of the Church of England. 
Among his publications were : a "Sermon" (1819); "Sab- 
bath Meditations in Prose and Verse," in two volumes 
(1826, 1827) ; " The Happy Moment" (1835) ; and "My Sav- 
iour," — a volume published in England (1836), and repub- 
lished shortly after at Boston, Mass., in which is found the 
hymn, 

" There is a fold, whence none can stray," etc. 

He was, in 1828, preferred to the Rectorship of Croscome, 
Somersetshire ; and, in 1841, was one of the curates of St. 
Michael's Church, Bath. He sympathized with the Evan- 
gelical clergy, and frequently appeared, at public meetings, 
as an advocate of the cause of Missions. 



JAMES WALLIS EASTBURN. 
1797-1819. 

This lovely and highly-gifted youth was an elder brother 
of the late Rt. Rev. Dr. Manton Eastburn, of Boston, Mass. 
He was the son of James and Charlotte Eastburn, of London, 
England, where he was born, September 26, 1797. The fam- 
ily emigrated, in 1803, to the City of New York, and there his 
father became first a merchant, and then a bookseller and 
publisher of wide repute. The son was a pupil successively 
of Mr. Malcolm Campbell, Rev. Edmund D. Barry, D.D., 
the New York Grammar School, and Rev. Thomas T. War- 
ner. He entered Union College, in 1812, but, the following 
year, was transferred to Columbia College, graduating, with 
a high reputation for scholarship, in 1816. 

About the time of his graduation he became a commu- 
nicant in St. George's Church, New York, of which Dr. 
James Milnor had just become the Rector. Having de- 



JAMES WALLIS EASTBURN. 223 

voted himself to the work of the ministry, he pursued 
his studies at Bristol, R. I., under the instruction of 
Bishop A. y. Griswold. Under the faithful ministry of 
this godly divine, he grew rapidly in spiritual life, and 
entered most fully upon a career of Christian usefulness. 
He was ordained a deacon, Oct. 20, 1818, in Trinity Church, 
New York, by Bishop Hobart. He now became the Rector 
of St. George's, Accomack Co., Eastern Shore, Va. After 
a brief and most successful service of eight months, during 
which he won the high esteem and ardent love of his parish, 
he was compelled, by hemorrhage of the lungs, to relinquish 
his charge, and to return, July, 1819, to his father's house 
in New York. Consumption speedily reduced his remain- 
ing strength, and, four days after embarking with his 
mother and brother Manton for Santa Cruz, terminated his 
mortal life, December 2, 1819. His remains were committed 
to the deep. 

Short as was his life (22 years), Mr. Eastburn had acquired 
an enviable literary reputation. At the age of sixteen, 
his second year in college, he was associated with Robert 
Charles Sands, his bosom-friend thenceforward, in conduct- 
ing a periodical, called The Moralist At eighteen, he 
composed his hymn for Trinity Sunday, 

"O lioly, holy, holy Lord !" etc., 

which, in 1826, was included in the Collection attached to 
the (U. S.) "Book of Common Prayer." During his resi- 
dence near Mount Hope, Bristol, formeriy the home of 
Philip, the renowned Sachem of the Pequods, he became 
so fascinated with the romantic story of the Indian King, 
that, in company with Sands, he began, November, 1817, to 
write a poetic history of the tribe. His part of the work 
was completed in the summer of 1818. The poem was fin- 
ished and published, in 1820, by Sands, with a touching 
Poem, commemorative of Eastburn. 

His literary "remains," says his brother, "are amazingly 
voluminous. ... His prose writings . . . take in an ex- 
tensive range of moral and classical disquisition, and are 



224 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

models of tlie purest Addisonian English. . . . Wliatever 
be the subject . . . the pages are indited with a pen dipped 
in the dew of heaven." 

After a glorious night, in June, 1819, spent, until after 
midnight, beneath the open expanse of heaven, on the 
Eastern Shore of Virginia, he penned that beautiful piece 
of six double stanzas, called "The Summer Midnight," of 
which the following are the first and last stanzas : 

" The breeze of night has sunk to rest, 
Upon the river's tranquil breast, 
And every bird has sought her nest, 

Where silent is lier minstrelsy ; 
The queen of heaven is sailing high, — 
A pale bark on the azure sky, 
Where not a breath is heard to sigh, — 

So deep the soft tranquillity. 

"There is an hour of deep repose, 
That yet upon my heart shall close. 
When all that nature dreads, and knows, 

Shall burst uj)on me wondrously ; 
Oh I may I then awake forever 
My harp to raptui-e's high endeavor, 
And, as from earth's vain scene I sever, 

Be lost in immortality." 



JAMES EDMESTOlSr. 

1791-1867. 

Two thousand hymns, or nearly that number, are attrib- 
uted to Mr. Edmeston,— some of them very sweet and beau- 
tiful, though none of them are of the highest order of 
poetry. His mother, Hannah Brewer (1759-1833), was the 
third daughter of the Rev. Samuel Brewer (1723-1796), of 
Stepney, London, and Miss Woolmer, of Wapping, Lon- 
don. She was, for fifty-eight years, a consistent and godly 
member of the Congregational Church of Stepney, of which 



JAMES EDMESTON. 225 

her honored father was, for almost fifty years, the highly 
useful pastor. She was married to Mr. EdmestoD, of Wap- 
piiig, in 1789, and her second child, James, was born there, 
September 10, 1791. 

The first twelve years of his life were spent at Wapping. 
But, in 1803, the family removed to Hackney ; and there his 
education was completed. Four years later (1807) he was 
articled to a surveyor and architect, continuing in the office 
nine years, when, at twenty-five years of age, he entered into 
the business on his own account. In 1822, he removed to 
Homerton, where he continued to reside the remainder of 
his life. Though educated a Dissenter, he early acquired a 
liking for the Church of England, and some years aft,er his 
removal to Homerton, he connected himself with Ram's 
Chapel, under the Perpetual Curacy of the Rev. Thomas 
Griffith. In 1851, he was appointed a church-warden of 
the newly-instituted St. Barnabas Chapel. In 1823 he mar- 
ried, and his numerous family of children were deprived of 
their mother in 1850. He survived until January 7, 1867, 
dying in his seventy-sixth year. 

He indulged the poetic vein from his youth. In 1817 
he published, "The Search and other Poems"; and soon 
after, " Anston Park," a Tale, and " The World of Spirits." 
In each of the years, 1820, 1821, and 1822, he put forth a 
small volume of " Sacred Lyrics." Tliese volumes were 
well-received, and their author complimented " as a young 
writer of great promise." The hymns, or lyiics, were thor- 
oughly evangelical. In 1821, he successfully competed for 
a prize of twenty guineas offered by a friend of the Home 
Missionary Society, for the best set of Original Hymns (not 
less than fifty) suitable for Cottage Prayer-Meetings. The 
Hymns were published by the Society, with the Title, " The 
Cottage Minstrel: or Hymns for the Assistance of Cot- 
tagers in their Domestic Worship." " One Hundi^ed 
Hymns for Sunday- Schools," appeared in 1821, and " One 
Hundred Sunday- School Hymns for Particular Occasions," 
in 1822 ; also fifty " Missionary Hymns." 

Frequent contributions of single hjonns were made, from 
15 



226 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

this time onward for several years, to the Congregational 
Magazine, and to other periodicals. In 1830, appeared, " The 
Woman of Shunam, a Dramatic Sketch ; Patmos, a Frag- 
ment, and other Poems "; in 1844, " Hymns for the Chamber 
of Sickness"; in 1845, a volume of "Sonnets"; and in 1846, 
" Closet Hymns and Poems," — the last two published by the 
Religious Tract Society. " Infant Breathings : being Hymns 
for the Young," also appeared in 1846. The greater part of 
his " Lyrics" were published, in one volume (1847), and his 
" Sacred Poetry," in 1848. 

Some of his Poems were written, as he states, at the sug- 
gestion of his friend, Mrs. Jemima Luke (the widow of the 
Rev. Samuel Luke, of Clifton), the author of 

" I think, when I read that sweet story of old," etc. 

Others were written, from week to week, for the Sunday 
Service of family prayer, in his own household. The beau- 
tiful hymn, 

"Saviour ! breathe an evening blessing," etc., 

was suggested by a passage in Henry Salt's " Yoyage to 
Abyssinia," to this effect : " At night, their short Evening 
Hymn — ' Jesus ! forgive us ! ' — stole through the camp." 

" As oft, with worn and weary feet," etc., 

was contributed, in four stanzas, to the February Number of 
the Congregational Magazine, for 1832. His latest contri- 
butions were a few hymns for Mr. Spurgeon's Collection, 
entitled, " Our Own Hymn Book" (1866). 

A brief Ode, on " Spiritual Peace," is subjoined, as an ex 
ample of his style and spirit : 

"Come, sacred Peace ! delightful guest, 
Diffuse thy heaven within my breast ; 
Thy soothing power, thy gladdening ray, 
God gives, and none can take away. 

"A stormy world, a heart of sin, 
Makes strife without and fear within ; 
But God can give the soul repose, 
Though tossed by storms, and pressed by foes. 



RICHARD ELLIOT. 

"Perpetual summer, cloudless skies, 
A gushiiig spring which never dies, 
A table in the desert spread, 
A pillow for the weary head, — 

* ' Such is the peace which God can give. 
My sweetest portion while I live ; 
And, when the last dark hour draws nigh, 
My sweetest solace as I die." 



227 



RICHAED ELLIOT. 

1788. 

Mr. Elliot was a native of Kingsbridge, Devonshire. He 
entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1746, and 
graduated, A.B., in 1749. Shortly after, he united with the 
Methodists ; but eventually, settled, as a Dissenting minis- 
ter, in London. He obtained (1760) the use of the Baptist 
meeting-house, just vacated, in Maiden-head Court, Great- 
Eastcheap, and occupied it until 1773, being assisted in his 
ministry here, by the Rev. Thomas Tuppen, of Bath. He 
published (1761), for the use of his congregation, a volume 
of "Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs — In Two 
Parts." The second Part was original. 

In 1773, he removed from Great-Eastcheap to another 
Baptist meeting-house, just vacated, in Glass-house-Yard, 
Goswell Street, near the Charter-House. He died in 1788. 
Among his publications was, " Sin Destroj^^ed and the Sin- 
ner Saved ; or Justification by Imputed Righteousness, a 
Doctrine superior to all others for promoting Holiness in 
Life." His " Sermons and Theological Treatises " were pub- 
lished in 1788. The hymn, 

" How happy are the souls above," etc., 

is from Toplady's Collection, where it is followed by an- 



228 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

.other from liis pen, of whicli the first two stanzas are sub 
joined : 

" Prepare me, O my God! to stand before thy face; 
Thy Spirit must the work perform, for it is all of grace. 

" In Christ's obedience clothe, and wash me in his blood; 
So shall I lift my head with joy among the sons of God." 



CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. 

1789-1871. 

Chaelotte Elliott was of a godly and highly gifted 
family. Her maternal grandfather, the Rev. Henry Venn, 
of Huddersfield, and Yelling, England, was a divine of apos- 
tolic character. He wrote " The Complete Dnty of Man " 
(1763), and was one of that gifted band of godly ministers, 
whose labors and writings were blessed so greatly in bring- 
ing about and promoting "The Great Awakening" of the 
last century, among the churches of Great Britain. He 
married (1757) a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Bishop, 
D.D., an eminent divine of Ipswich. Their eldest daugh- 
ter, Eling, so often addressed in Mr. Venn's Memoirs, 
was married, December 20, 1785, to Charles Elliott, Esq., of 
Clapham and Brighton. Of their six children, Charlotte 
was the third daughter. The Rev. Edw^ard Bishop Elliott, 
and the Rev. Henry Venn Elliott, w^ere her brothers. The 
Rev. John Venn, the highly-honored Rector of Clapham, 
was her uncle. 

Charlotte was born, March 18, 1789, at Westfield Lodge, 
Brighton. Her childhood was passed in a circle of great 
refinement and piety. She was highly educated, and devel- 
oped, at an early age, a great passion for music and art. 
In 1821, she became, and continued to be until death, a 
confirmed invalid. At times she suffered greatly, but with 
the utmost resignation. It was not until 1822, that she 



CHAELOTTE ELLIOTT. 229 

was brought into the full assurance of faith. The Rev. 
Dr. Csesar Malan, of Geneva, Switzerland, being on a visit 
to her father's Clapham residence, Grove House, was the 
liapi^y instrument of her deliverance from the burden of 
guilt. 

Her health was improved by a visit, the following year, 
to Normandy. But, in 1829, she once more became an al- 
most helpless sufferer, with only occasional intervals of re- 
lief. In 1833, she was deprived of her godly father by 
death. She undertook (1834) the editorial suioervision of 
" The Christian Remembrancer Pocket Book," an Annual, 
and (1836) of the "Invalid's Hymn Book,"— works pre- 
viously conducted by her friend. Miss Harriet Kiernan, who 
was then in the last stages of consumption. The Annual 
she edited for twenty-five years. Many of her poems ap- 
j)eared in it. To the edition of the " Invalid's Hymn 
Book," enlarged and edited byherself, anonymously (1836), 
she contributed 115 hymns ; and among them her admi- 
rable hymn, 

" Just as I am, without one plea," etc. 

She contributed several hymns (1835) to a Selection of 
"Psalms and Hymns," by her brother, Rev. Henry V. 
Elliott. She, also, published (1836), "Hours of Sorrow 
Cheered and Com.forted." Her "Morning and Evening 
Hymns for a Week," was printed privately in 1837, and 
published in 1842. A visit to Scotland in 1835, and to 
Switzerland in 1837, benefited her considerably. 

Her greatly endeared sister-in-law, Henry's wife, died in 
1841. Her own mother, after a year's severe illness, died in 
April, 1843. Two of her sisters soon followed. She herself 
was brought almost to the gates of death. Her home was 
thus broken up, and, in 1845, she and her surviving sister, 
after a summer's sojourn on the Continent, fixed their 
home at Torquay. At the end of fourteen years, she re- 
turned to Brighton. A volume of her " Poems " appeared 
in 1863. Her beloved brother, Henry, died in 1863. Once 
only (1867) she ventured again from home, and passed a 



230 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

few weeks at a neigliboring village. In 1869, she was 
brouglit very low, but rallied slightly. She continued bed- 
ridden until September 22, 1871, when she sweetly fell 
asleep. 

Greatly as she suffered, her life was prolonged to an ex- 
treme old age (eighty-two), and filled up with deeds of be- 
neficence. She shrank from everything like ostentation, 
nearly all her books having been issued anonymously. 
The following stanzas are from a loving epistle to her sis- 
ter, Eleanor, written, in the immediate prospect of death, 
at fourscore years of age : 

' ' Sweet has been our earthly union, 

Sweet our fellowship of love : 
But more exquisite communion 

Waits us in our home above ; 
Nothing- there can loose or sever 
Ties ordained to last for ever. 

" Place me in those arms as tender, 
But more powerful far than thine : 

For a while thy charge surrender 
To His guardianship divine : 

Lay me on my Saviour's breast, 

There to find eternal rest." 



JULIA ANNE ELLIOTT. 

1841. 

Mrs. Elliott was the daughter of John Marshall, Esq., of 
Hallsteads, Ulleswater, England. In 1827, being on a visit 
Avith her father to Brighton, she worshipped at St. Mary's, 
of which the Rev. Henry Y. Elliott, the brother of Charlotte 
Elliott, was the Perpetual Curate. An acquaintance between 
the two was thus formed, resulting in their marriage, October 
31, 1833. She greatly endeared herself, in this happy rela- 
tionship, to the people of the parish, and especially to her 



CORNELIUS ELVEN. 231 

Husband's family. Charlotte Elliott, in particular, became 
ardently attached to her, and loved her as her own sister. 
She was a lady of great loveliness and excellence, and her 
piety was of a high order. Her poetic taste and skill were 
evinced in several hymns contributed (1835) to a volume of, 
" Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship," compiled, by 
her husband, for the use of his own people. Soon after 
giving birth to her fifth child, she calmly yielded up her 
spirit, November 3, 1841. Her unexpected removal was 
greatly lamented, not only by her own immediate kindred, 
but by a large circle of ardent admirers. 
The last two stanzas of her hymn, beginning with 

" Hail ! thou bright and sacred mom," 

are subjoined : 

" Soon, too soon, the sweet repose 

Of this day of God wiU cease ; 
Soon this glimpse of heaven will close, 

Vanish soon the houi-s of peace ; 
Soon return the toil, the strife, 
All the weariness of life. 

' ' But the rest which yet remains 

For thy people, Lord ! above, 
Knows nor change, nor fears, nor pains, — 

Endless as their Saviour's love : 
Oh ! may every Sabbath here 
Bring us to that rest more near ! " 



CORNELIUS ELYEN. 

1797-1873. 

CoRisrELius Elven^, born in 1797, was for more than 
fifty years the laborious and useful i)astor of a Baptist 
^Church at Bury St. Edmunds, England. When he took this 
charge, it numbered only forty members, but increased to 



232 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

more than six hundred communicants. His literary pro- 
ductions have been limited to a few articles written for 
periodicals. In January, 1852, his congregation was favored 
with a revival of religion. To accompany the Revival Ser- 
.mons preached at the time, he wrote, with several other 
hymns, the one beginning 

"With broken heart and contrite sigh," etc., 

which seems to have been adapted to a sermon from the 
Text,—" God ! be merciful to me, a sinner ! " 
Mr. Elven died in July, 1873. 



WILLIAM ENFIELD. 

1741-1797. 

The Rev. William Enfield, LL.D., was the son of 
poor but worthy parents, of Sudbury, Suffolk, England, 
where, March 29, 1741, he was born, and passed his boyhood. 
His proficiency and promise attracted the attention of the 
Rev. Mr. Hextall, the Dissenting minister of the town, who 
gave direction to his studies, and made him familiar, at an 
early age, with the choicest writers, in ]3rose and poetry, of 
the English language. In 1758, he was sent to the Academy 
at Daventry, Northamptonshire, to be educated for the 
ministry, under the care and tuition of the Rev. Dr. Caleb 
Ashworth, the successor of Doddridge. Here he distin- 
guished himself for his scholarship, and elegance of style 
in composition. His religious views were Arian. 

In November, 1763, he was ordained the pastor of Benn's 
Garden Congregation, Liverpool. He married (1767) Miss 
Mary Holland, the daughter of a Liverpool draper. He 
published (1768, 1770) two volumes of sermons. He ac- 
cepted, in 1770, the Tutorship of Belles-Lettres, as the 
successor of the Rev. John Seddon, in Warrington Acad- 
emy, together with the Rectorship of the Institution, and 



WILLIAM ENFIELD. 233 

the pastorate of the Dissenting congregation of the town. 
He was associated, in the Academy, with the Rev. Dr. John 
Aikin, Mrs. Barbaukl's father, and with the learned Eev. 
Gilbert Wakefield. 

Scholarly in his tastes, he made much use of the press. 
He published : " The Preacher's Directory " (1771) ; 160 
" H3^nns for Public Worship," known as " The Warrington 
Collection" (1772); "The English Preacher" (1773); "An 
Essay towards the History of Liverpool" (1774); "Obser- 
vations on Literary Property" (1774); "The Speaker" 
(1774); "Biographical Sermons, on the principal Characters 
mentioned in the Old and New Testaments " (1777); " Exer- 
cises in Elocution, being a Sequel to the Speaker" (1781); 
"A Translation of Rossignol's Elements of Geometry" 
(1783); and "Institutes of J^atural Philosophy, Theoretical 
and Experimental " (1783). The honorary degree of LL.D. 
was conferred on him, about this time, by the University 
of Edinburgh. 

The Warrington Academy was discontinued in 1785, and 
Dr. Enfield became the pastor of the " Octagon Congrega- 
tion " of Dissenters at Norwich. He kept, also, for a short 
time, a large boarding-school, but soon relinquished it, in 
order to have more leisure for literature and the education 
of his five children. He published, in 1791, in two volumes, 
an Abridgment of Brucker's "Historia Critica Philoso- 
phise." He became, also, a regular contributor to the 
Montlily Magazine, just then started ; and, in 1796, united 
with his late associate and intimate friend, the Rev. Dr. 
John Aildn, in the preparation of a " General Biographical 
Dictionary." He prepared about one half of the first vol- 
ume ; but his work was arrested by a cancerous affection 
which terminated his life, November 3, 1797. 

His hymn, 

"Behold where, in the Friend of man," etc., 

appeared in the second edition (1781) of the Warrington 
Collection. Some compiler has changed, greatly to \he. 
injury of the expression, the phrase, " the Friend of man," 



234 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

to " a mortal form." The latter is a spurious reading. The 
following stanzas are taken from his hymn on "Humility ": 

"Wherefore should man, frail child of clay, 
Who, from the cradle to the shroud, 
Lives but the insect of a day, — 
Oh ! why should mortal man be proud? 

" His brightest visions just appear. 

Then vanish, and no more are found ; 
The stateliest pile his pride can rear, 
A breath may level with the ground. 

' ' By doubt perplexed, in error lost, 

With trembling step he seeks his way : 
How vain of wisdom's gift the boast! 
Of reason's lamp how faint the ray ! " 



JAMES HARINGTON EVANS. 
1785-1849. 

Mr. Evans was the only child of the Rev. Dr. Evans, 
priest- vicar in Salisbury Cathedral, and head-master of the 
Endowed Grammar-School. He was born, April 1.5, 1785, 
at Salisbury. Destined for the pulpit from his birth, he 
w^as regularly educated in his father's school, and subse- 
quently by his uncle. Rev. Isaac Hodgson, of Oxford. He 
obtained, at fourteen, a scholarship in Wadham College, 
Oxford; at eighteen graduated, B.A.; and, at twenty, be- 
came a Fellow of Wadham. 

The death of his mother, in 1803, led to a marked change 
in his life and i^rinciples, and to a more earnest preparation 
for the ministry. He was ordained a deacon, by Bishop 
Moss, of Oxford, June 12, 1808. In May, 1809, he' took the 
curacy of Worjjlesdon, near Guildford, Surrey ; but shortly 
after, exchanged it for a curacy at Enville, Staffordshire. 



JAMES HAEINGTON EVANS. 235 

He married, April, 1810, Caroline Joyce, the daughter 
of Thomas Joyce, Freshfield House, near Bath. At Mil- 
ford, Hampshire, where he next took a curacy, his labors 
were abundantly blessed, resulting in a revival of religion. 
Owing to the opposition of the superior clergy, he resigned 
(1815) his curacy, on the ground of scruples in relation to 
Infant Baptism and Church Establishments, and retired to 
Walford House, near Taunton, where he connected himself 
with the Baptists. He removed, shortly after, to London, 
and opened a Baptist Chapel, in Cross Street, Hatton Gar- 
den. He afterwards preached to crowded houses in Great 
Queen Street. In 1818, he commenced a ministry of 
thirty-one years in John Street Chapel, Gray's Inn Lane, 
erected for him by Lady Drummond, the wife of Henry 
Drummond, Esq., M.P., his sister-in-law. His ministry 
proved exceedingly attractive and useful. 

His first publication was " The Old Man and his Grand- 
daughter at E[nville]." In 1819, he published " Dialogues on 
Important Subjects," which, because of erroneous views on 
the Trinity, amounting to Sabellianism, he retracted in 
"Letters to a Friend in Ireland" (1826). He also pub- 
lished : " Letters of a Pastor to his Flock" (1835) ; " Five 
Sermons on Faith" (1837); "A Collection of Psalms and 
Hymns" (1838); "The Spirit of Holiness, Four Sermons" 
(1838), reprinted and extensively circulated in America ; 
"Checks to Infidelity, contained in Four Essays" (1840); 
and " Vintage Gleanings " (1849). 

His wife was removed by death in 1831, and, in 1833, he 
married a daughter of Robert Bird, Esq., of Taplow. In 
1847, his health declined, and the next two years he sought 
its restoration, by cessation from labor and by travel. He 
died at Stonehaven, Scotland, December 1, 1849. His pas- 
sion for music and poetry was strongly developed. He was 
succeeded in the ministry of John Street Chapel by the 
Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, whom he had baptized, 
and who, like himself, had been a clergyman of the Church 
of England. 

Nine of the hymns in his " Collection " were from his 



236 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

own pen. Two of the six stanzas are subjoined of Ms 46th 
hymn, on the words, " I, the Lord, change not ": 

" Change is our portion here; 
Yet, midst our changing lot, 
Midst withering flowers, and tempests drear, 

There is that changes not, — 
Unchangeahle Jehovah's word, 
' I will be with thee,' saith the Lord. 

'• Changeless the way of peace; 
Changeless Immanuel's name ; 
Changeless the covenant of grace ; 

Eternally the same. 
* I change not, ' is a Father's word, 
' I am thy portion,' saith the Lord." 



JONATHAN EYANS. 

1749-1809. 

JoiSTATHAisr EvAisrs was a native of Coventry, Warwickshire, 
England, and was born (1749) of parents in the humbler walks 
of life. He seems to have had no religious training. The 
companions of his youth were mostly profane and profli- 
gate, and he himself aspired to be their leader in the ways 
of sin. He served, until of age, in the warehouse of a rib- 
bon manufactory. In 1776, as appears from a poetic con- 
tribution to the February Number of the Gospel Magazine 
for 1777, he was brought under deep conviction of his fallen 
estate, and hopefully converted. Another poetic contribu- 
tion, dated " March 8, 1777," on " The Frailty of Human Life ; 
and the Joys of Eternity," published in the October Num- 
ber, gives abundant evidence of genuine religious experience. 
Soon after, he united with the West Orchard Chapel (Con- 
gregational), of which the highly-honored George Burder 
became (1783) the pastor. 



JONATHAN EVANS. 237 

Though. Mr. Evans had entered into business, and contin- 
ued therein to the end of life, he very soon was known as 
an occasional preacher. He embraced every opportunity 
to proclaim the Gospel, both in Coventry and in the adja- 
cent country, in the open air, or wherever a congregation 
could be gathered. " Mr. Evans preached in the afternoon," 
says Mr. Burder of the day of his inauguration, November 
2, 1783. The year before this, he had commenced to j^reach 
regularlj^ at Foleshill, a populous village two miles from 
Coventry, and to gather the neglected children into Sunday- 
Schools, about the time that Robert Raikes was doing a 
like work at Gloucester. In 1784, he purchased a boat- 
house, on the canal bank, and fitted it up for a place of 
public worship — enlarging it, from time to time, as the work 
grew and i3rospered. A convenient chapel was built on the 
same site, in 1795, a church organized, and he himself regu- 
larly ordained, April 4, 1797, to the pastorate of the con- 
gregation. 

As a preacher he used great plainness of speech and 
earnestness of manner. His success in winning souls to 
Christ was remarkable. He labored diligently for the tem- 
poral, as well as the spiritual, welfare of his flock, rendering 
them, occasionally, medical assistance, as he had acquired 
some knowledge of the j)ractice of medicine. He died, very 
suddenly, August 31, 1809, in the sixtieth year of his age. 

With the exception of a few small pamphlets, or tracts, 
he published nothing. He wrote a number of hymns, to be 
sung in connection with some of his occasional sermons. 
Three of these were contributed to Mr. Burder's " Collec- 
tion of Hymns " (1784). Twenty-two of his hymns appeared 
in the Clirisfian Magazine (1790-1793). A large number 
were left, in manuscript, at his decease. The authorship of 
the hymn 

"Hark! tlie voice of love and mercy," etc., 

has been disputed, but his friends claim it as his. It first 
appeared in Dr. Nippon's Selection (1787). Dr. Belcher 
says it is a part only of one of Evans' hymns. Tlie follow- 



238 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ing is from a hymn contributed (1784) to Burder's Collec- 
tion : 

"Let saints on earth theii- anthems raise, 
Who taste the Saviour's grace ; 
Let saints in heaven proclaun his praise, 
And crown him Prince of peace. 

" Praise him who laid his glory by, 
For man's apostate race ; 
Praise him who stoojDed to bleed and die, 
And crown him Prince of peace. 

' ' We soon shall reach the blissf xil shore, 
To view his heavenly face. 
His name for ever to adore. 
And crown him Prince of peace." 



FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER. 

1814-1863. 

Faber's hymns are among the grandest and most beaii- 
tiful in the language. He came of a good stock— the old 
Huguenot blood flowing in his veins. The Revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes (1685) brought to England his ances- 
tors, whose memory and principles were faithfully cher- 
ished by their descendants. 

His grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Faber, was the Vicar 
of Calverley, Yorkshire, where the grandson was born, the 
seventh child of his parents, June 28, 1814. In December 
of the same year, his father, Tliomas Henry Faber, Esq., be- 
came the steward of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Shute Bamngton, 
Bishop of Durham ; and from that time until his decease in 
1833, he resided in the Bishop's palace at Bishops-Auck- 
land, beautifully situated at the confluence of the rivers 
Wear and Gaunless. In the midst of these romantic 
scenes, the youthful poet passed his boyhood, and received 
instruction at the grammar-school. In his tenth year, he 



FEEDERICK WILLIAM FABER. 339 

was sent to the school of the Kev. John Gibson, at Kirkby- 
Stephen, Westmoreland, and introduced to the still more 
romantic scenery of that far-famed locality. Even at that 
early age, his great delight was a solitary ramble in '^ the 
golden honrs of schoolboy holiday," among the hills, and 
along the lakes and rivers, 

"Thouglitful even then because of the excess 
Of boyhood's rich abounding happiness.'' 

It is of this beautiful " Lake Country," that he says, — 

" Each hazel copse, each greenly tangled bower, 
Is sacred to some well-remembered hour, — 
Some quiet hour when nature did her part 
And worked her spell upon my childish heart." 

Therefore, with peculiar propriety, he could say, — 

' ' Nature hath been my mother ; all her moods 
On the gray mountain, or the sullen floods, 
Have chai'nied my soul." 

Two years later (1825), he was sent, first, for a short time, 
to the Free Grammar-School of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, 
and then to the Free School of Harrow, Middlesex — a spot 
famed for its great extent and beauty of prospect. Seven 
years — the best of his youthful aspirations — were spent 
here, under the instruction, first of the Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Butler (afterwards Bishop of Lincoln), and then of the Rev. 
Dr. Charles Longley (afterwards Archbishop of Canter- 
bury). Here, too, he was brought under the spiritual in- 
structions of the godly Cunningham, Yicar of Harrow-on- 
the-Hill, and thus led to regard vdth favor the evangelical 
system of divine truth. 

He had a happy faculty of winning the good graces of 
all who knew him. " I can not tell why it is," said one of 
his Harrow schoolmates, " but that Faber fascinates every- 
body." He had " a grace of person and mind rarely to be 
met with." His intellectual development was not less re- 
markable, — particularly in the poetic vein. 

He entered Baliol College, Oxford, in 1832. " The Cher- 



240 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

well Water- Lily," one of his most popular poems, pub- 
lished in 1840, was written during his first year in col- 
lege. He now became, as he himself expresses it, " an 
unprejudiced acolyth of Ne^vman's5 an attentive reader 
of his works, a diligent attender at his church " — St. Mary 
Virgin, of which the famous John Henry Newman was 
then the Vicar. Under such a guidance, it is not strange 
that Faber, full of youthful and poetic fervor, entered, with 
all his heart and soul, into " the Theological Movement of 
1833," and embraced the Romanistic views advocated in 
the " Tracts for the Times. " After a few months, however, 
his evangelical education reasserted its sway, and he shrank 
from the logical results of Newman's teachings. 

In 1835, he entered University College, having obtained 
one of its scholarships. He became, also, a contributor to 
the Oxford University Magazine. His i3oem, on "The 
Knights of St. John," obtained, in 1836, the Newdigate 
prize. After his graduation (1836), he accompanied his 
brother, the Rev. Francis Atkinson Faber, on a visit to 
Germany for the recovery of his impaired health. He ob- 
tained a Fellowship, in January, 1837, and the Johnson 
Divinity Scholarship. He had now fairly drifted back to 
Tractarianism, and translated the seven books of Optatus, 
for the "Library of the Fathers." Newman resumed his 
spiritual sway over his plastic mind, and the spell was 
never afterwards broken. His poetic tastes were further 
stimulated by a visit, once and again, to Wordsworth, at 
Ambleside. 

He was ordained a deacon, August 6, 1837, at Ripon, by 
his old teacher. Dr. Longley, and a priest. May 26, 1839, at 
Oxford, by Bishop Bagot. Though he published (1838- 
1839) several Tracts in favor of Anglicanism, he continued 
to gravitate towards Rome. In 1840, he published his 
" Clierwell Water- Lily, and other Poems." A visit to Bel- 
gium and the Rhine in 1839, and another to Constantinople 
(with a pupil) in 1841, helped forward the Romanizing 
tendency of his mind. In 1842, he published " Sights and 
Thoughts in Foreign Churches and among Foreign Peo- 



FEEDERICK WILLIAM FABER. 241 

pies"; also, " Stygian Lake, and other Poems." Tlie next 
year (1843), lie was presented to the living of Elton, Hunt- 
ingdonshire. Soon after, with letters from Bishop (after- 
wards Cardinal) Wiseman, he visited Kome, and, after an 
interview with the Pope, Gregory XVI., resolved that '-'his 
whole life should be one crusade against the detestable 
and diabolical heresy of Protestantism,"—" the devil's mas- 
ter-piece." Though he said of himself at this time, " I grow 
more Roman every day ; . . . I am i:iery^ very, VERY 
Roman," he returned to Elton, and for two years continued 
his ministry in a Protestant Church. " Sir Lancelot, a 
Poem," appeared the same year. He also wrote the " Lives 
of several English Saints," for a Series then in process of 
publication. 

At length, following the example of Dr. N^ewman, he was 
received, November 17, 1845, into the papal communion, at 
Northampton, having the day before resigned his Elton 
living. The next year he spent at Birmingham, and the 
two following at Colton, or St. Wilfrid's, Staffordshire. 
In February, 1848, he was received into the Oratory of St. 
Philip Neri, and in October, 1849, was appointed Superior 
of the Oratory at London. The establishment was, in 1854, 
removed to I3rompton, in the suburbs. Worn out with 
vigils, fastings, and other austerities, he yielded to 
Bright's disease of the kidneys, and died, Seijtember 26, 
1863, in his fiftieth year. 

A small volume of his original hymns (less than 50) was 
published, in 1848, for the use of the Brotherhood at St. 
Wilfrid's ; an enlarged edition, with the title, " Jesus and 
Mary," appeared in 1849 ; a third, with %?> hymns, followed 
in 1852 ; a fourth, called " The Oratory Hymn Book," with 
77 hymns, in 1854 ; and a final edition of 150 hymns, in 
1862. Tliese hymns have acquired great popularity among 
the Roman Catholics in England and America, and not a 
few of them are to be found in Protestant Collections. 
Some of them are unsurpassed as specimens of the highest 
order of devotional poetry,— lofty in thought, elegant in 
diction, graceful in rhythm, fervent in spirit, highly sug- 
16 



242 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

gestive, and wonderfully inspiriting. Tliey show evident 
traces of the evangelical influences under which he grew 
to manhood, and by which his religious character was 
moulded. 

He published also : " All for Jesus ; or, The Easy Way 
of Divine Love " (1853) ; " Growth in Holiness ; or. Progress 
of the Spiritual Life " (1854) ; " The Blessed Sacrament ; or, 
Works and Ways of God" (1855) ; "The Creator and the 
Creature ; or, The Wonders of Divine Love " (1856) ; a new 
and revised edition of his " Poems " (1857) ; " Ethel's Book," 
and "The Foot of the Cross ; or, Sorrows of Mary" (1858) ; 
" Spiritual Conferences " (1859) ; and " The Precious Blood ; 
or, The Price of our Salvation," and " Bethlehem " (1860). 

The following are from a lyric of seven stanzas, on " The 
Pilgrims of the Night ": 

' ' Hark ! hark ! my soul ! angelic songs are swelling 

O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-heat shore ; 
How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling 
Of that new life when sm shall he no more. 

' ' Onward we go, for still we hear them singing, 
' Come, weary souls ! for Jesus bids you come ' ; 
And, through the dark, its echoes sweetly ringing, 
The music of the Gospel leads us home. 

" Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing, 
The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea, 
And laden souls, by thousands meekly stealing, 
Kind Shepherd ! turn their weary steps to thee. 

" Angels! sing on, your faithful watches keeping; 
Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above; 
While we toil on, and soothe ourselves with weeping, 
Till life's long night shall break in endless love." 



JOHN FAWCETT. 243 

JOHN FAWCETT. 

1739-1817. 

John- Fawcett was born, January 6, 1739, at Lidget- 
Green, Yorkshire, England. His father, who was in hum- 
ble circumstances, and attached to the Church of England, 
died in 1751, leaving a A\ddow and several children. The 
next year, John was put to a trade at Bradford, and served 
an apprenticeship of six years. At sixteen, he embraced op- 
portunities to hear John and Charles Wesley, Grimshaw, 
and Whitefield. A sermon by Whitefield (on " The Brazen 
Serpent," John iii. 14), delivered in September, 1755, was 
blessed to his conversion, and led him to consort with the 
Methodists. At the expiration of his apprenticeship in 
1758, he united with the Baptist Church of Bradford, then 
just gathered. Having made himself active and useful as 
a private Christian for several years, he was induced by the 
church to enter the pulpit as a preacher. 

In May, 1764, he accepted a call, on a salary of £25, to be 
the pastor of a small church at Wainsgate, in the moun- 
tainous region, directly west of Halifax, West Elding of 
Yorkshire, and not far from the home of his childhood. 
He was ordained their pastor, July 31, 1765. During his 
residence at Bradford, he had vn-itten a considerable num- 
ber of short poems, which, in 1767, he published as " Poeti- 
cal Essays." In 1771, he visited London, to supply the pul- 
pit of the Rev. Dr. John Gill, the learned Expositor of the 
Bible, who was then drawing nigh to the grave. After Dr. 
Gill's decease, October 14, 1771, he received (1772) a call to 
the vacant charge, an honor and preferment which he 
was constrained to accept ; but, having made his prepara- 
tions for removal to London, he was so overcome by the 
thought of parting with his greatly-attached and afflicted 
people, humble as they were, that he determined to recall 
his acceptance, and to remain at Wainsgate. It was then 
that he wrote that most popular of all his hymns, 
"Blessed be the tie that binds," etc. 



244 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

The same year, as " Christopholus," he published "The 
Christian's Humble Plea for his God and Saviour ; in an- 
swer to several Pamphlets lately published by the Rev. Dr. 
Priestley." "The Sick Man's Employ" appeared in 1774. 
A neAv chapel, capable of seating nearly 600 people, was 
erected for him, in 1777, at Hebden-Bridge (a more advan- 
tageous location) not far from Wainsgate. The year before, 
he had removed to Brearley Hall, in the village of Midgley, 
also in the same neighborhood, and here he opened a school 
which (removed subsequently to Ew^ood Hall) he continued 
through life, and at death devolved upon his son. On the 
last leaf of his Hymn-Book appears this Notice : 

"At Brearley Hall, In MIDGLEY, near Halifax, (a 
pleasant and healthy Situation) Youths are genteely Board- 
ed, and Trained up in useful Learning, with great Tender- 
ness, Fidelity and Care ; and upon reasonable Terms." 

It was thus that he contrived to live and support a grow- 
ing family. While a resident of Bradford, he had married 
Miss Susannah, the daughter of John Skirrow, of Bingley. 
In 1778, appeared his " Advice to Youth ; or, The Advan- 
tages of Early Piety." His Hymn-Book was published in 
1782. It contains some hymns which have become quite 
familiar to the Christian people of Great Britain and Amer- 
ica. The most of them were written to accompany sermons 
on particular passages of Scripture, and to be sung after 
the delivery of the sermon. They were principally com- 
posed in the midnight hours previous to the Sabbath. " An 
Essay on Anger," appeared in 1788 ; " The Cross of Christ>- 
the Christian's Glory," and " Considerations in favor of the 
newly organized Baptist Missionary Society," in 1793 ; " The 
Life of the Rev. Oliver Heywood," in 1796 ; and " Christ 
precious to them that believe," in 1799. 

In 1793, he was invited to succeed the Rev. Dr. Caleb 
Evans, as' President of the Baptist Academy at Bristol, an 
honor that he declined. In 1811, after four years of patient 
and assiduous labor, he published his " Devotional Family 
Bible," and, the same year, received the honorary degree of 
D.D. from an American college. He had suffered greatly, 



JOHN FAWCETT. 246 

pre\n[ous to 1783, from sickness and domestic calamities. 
Nor did he ever fully recover. In 1814, being quite ad- 
vanced in years, his health began rapidly to decline. A 
paralytic stroke in February, 1816, compelled his retire- 
ment fi'om the pastoral work, and, July 25, 1817, he left 
the world in joyful hope. 
His hymn, beginning with 

" Thy presence, Gracious God! afPord," 

has, in the original, attached to each stanza, the chorus, 

"Thus, Lord! thy waiting servants bless. 
And crown thy gospel with success." 

The hymn, beginning with 

"Praise to thee, thou great. Creator ! " 

owes only its first and third stanzas to Fawcett. They con- 
stitute the last of six double stanzas of a " Hymn on Spring" 
(written on a fine spring morning, at Gildersome, near 
Leeds), of which the first two are subjoined : 

"Lo! the bright, the rosy morning, 

Calls me forth to take the air ; 
Cheerful spring, with smiles returning, 

Ushers in the new-born year : 
Nature, now in all her beauty. 

With her gentle moving tongue, 
Prompts me to the pleasing duty 

Of a grateful, morning song. 

"See the early blossoms springing: 

See the jocund la.mbkius play ; 
Hear the lark and linnet singing 

Welcome to the new-born day; 
Vernal music, softly soimding. 

Echoes thi'ough the vocal grove ; 
Natui"e, now with life abounding, 

Swells with harmony and love." 



246 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

JOHN FELLOWS. 

1785. 

Dr. Watt, in his " Bibliotheca Britannica," and Allibone, 
after him, speak of John Fellows as a Methodist. Gadsby 
says truly, as might be gathered from his hymns and other 
works, that he was a Baptist. He was a Calvinistic Meth- 
odist the most of his life, and his earlier residence was at 
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. Thence he removed to Bir- 
mingham, where, in 1780, he was baptized by the Rev. Mr. 
Turner, and so became a member of the First Baptist 
Church, Avorshipping in Cannon Street. Dr. Belcher, who 
was a native of Birmingham, says that he was " a poor shoe- 
maker." He died at Birmingham, November 2, 1785. 

"Poor" as he was, and uneducated, he was greatly ad- 
dicted to versification. The following works from his pen 
were published within ten years (1770-1779), mostly at Bir- 
mingham : " Grace Tiimnphant, a Sacred Poem in Nine 
Dialogues " (1770) ; " Bromsgrove Elegy, in Blank Verse, on 
the Death of the Rev. G. Whitefield" (1771) ; "An Elegy 
on the Death of Dr. Gill" (1771); "Hymns on Believers' 
Baptism" (1773); "Eloquent and Noble Defence of the 
Gospel in His Three Celebrated Speeches, Paraphrased 
in Blank Verse" (1775); "Hymns in a Great Variety of 
Metres, on the Perfection of the Word of God and the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ" (1776); "The History of the Holy 
Bible, Attempted in Easy Verse" (1777) ; "A Fair and Im- 
partial Enquiry into the Rise, &c., of the Church of Rome, 
in a Series of Familiar Dialogues " (1779) ; and " A Prot- 
estant Catechism." 

All his publications antedate his Baptism by immersion, 
though it is evident that he had been a Baptist previously, 
for many years. Six of his hjTims are found in Rippon's 
Selection, and five in Dobell's. The most of his poetry is 
scarcely worth the name ; yet he had some facility in versi- 
fication, as may be seen by the following stanzas, from a 



ELEAZAR THOMPSON FITCH. 247 

hymn on Gen. xxiv. 31,— "Come in, tliou Blessed of the 
Lord!"— 

" Come in, ye blessed of the Lord! — 
Ye that beheve his holy word ; 
Come, and receive his heavenly bread, 
The food with which his saints are fed. 

"Your Saviour's boundless goodness prove, 
And feast on his redeeming love •, 
Come, all ye happy souls that thirst ! 
The last is welcome as the first. 

"Come to his table and receive 
Whate'er a pard'ning God can give; 
His love through every age endures; 
His promise and himself are yours." 



ELEAZAR THOMPSOIS' FITCH. 

1791-1871. 

The first American ancestor of the Rev. Prof. Fitch was 
the Rev. James Fitch, who was born, December 24, 1622, 
at Booking, Essex, England, and emigrated in 1638 to Amer- 
ica ; where, after a useful ministry of fifty-six years at Say- 
brook and at Norwich, Conn., he died, November 18, 1702, at 
Lebanon, Conn. His great-grandson, Capt. Nathaniel Fitch, 
married Mary Thompson, both of New Haven, Conn., and 
their son, Eleazar, was born, January 1, 1791. Favored, 
from childhood, with every opportunity of acquiring loiowl- 
edge, he improved his advantages, and early developed a 
taste for learning. 

In his sixteenth year, he entered Yale College, and grad- 
uated, in 1810, with Gov. Ellsworth, Prof. Goodrich, and 
Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse. After his graduation, he taught 
school at East Windsor Hill, Conn., and then at the New 
Haven Hopkins Grammar-School. Having made a profession 
of religion while in college, he pursued the study of theol- 



248 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

ogy at Andover Theological Seminary (1812-1815). He 
remained two years longer, pursuing advanced studies, giv- 
ing assistance in preaching, and supi^lying neighboring 
pulpits. 

At the decease of President Dwight (1817), Mr. Fitch was 
appointed Professor of Sacred Theology (as Dr. Dwight's 
successor), in Yale College. At his suggestion, and mostly 
by his efforts, the Theological Department was founded, in 
1822. In the distribution of the several Chairs, Homiletics 
wa.s assigned to Prof. Fitch. Having been ordained to the 
ministry, November 5, 1817, he became the Pastor of the 
College Church, and gave instruction to the undergradu- 
ates, also, in Natural Theology and the Evidences of Chris- 
tianity. In the course of his pastoral work, he delivered, 
to the successive classes, a series of discourses on System- 
atic Theology. Two Sermons on "The Nature of Sin," 
that he published, July, 1826, gave occasion to a sharp and 
somewhat acrimonious controversy, in relation to "New 
Haven Theology. " These sermons he was constrained to 
defend, the following year (1827), in a pamphlet of 95 
pages, against the objections of the Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green 
in the Philadelphia Christian Admcate. He received 
(1829) the honorary degree of D.D., from the University of 
Pennsylvania. 

He undertook, as one of a Committee appointed by the 
General Association of Connecticut, the oversight of a 
Hymn-Book for the use of their churches. It was pub- 
lished in 1845, and contained six of his own hymns. The 
decline of his health constrained him, in 1852, to resign his 
Professorship, retaining only a Lectureship in Theology. 
This, too, he relinquished, in 1861, and occupied, thencefor- 
ward until his decease, January 31, 1871, the position of 
Professor Emeritus. 

Prof. Fitch was characterized by great acuteness of mind, 
with a remarkable versatility. His inquiries were extended 
beyond theology, into other walks of literature, into sci- 
ence, the arts, esthetics, and political economy. He had a 
decided genius for poetry and music, and took delight in 



ALICE FLOWERDEW. 249 

the promotion of these arts. Of a retiring disposition, he 
shrank from the publicity of the press. His puliDit services 
were of a high order. His style Avas graceful, and his 
thoughts bold in conception and forcibly expressed. 
The following is his version of the 134tli Psalm : 

' ' Friends of God in every land ! 
Ye that wait his high command, 
Cheerful to his courts repair, 
Bless his name with gladness there. 

" There, with morning's early rays, 
Lift your hands in holy praise ; 
There, at evening's solemn hour. 
Bow before his throne of power. 

" There he meets his saints with grace; 
There reveals his glorious face ; — 
Heaven and earth's Creator blessed : — 
In his love let Zion rest." 



ALICE FLOWERDEW. 

1759-1830. 

The particulars of the early life of Mrs. Flowerdew have 
not been ascertained. She was a resident, for a few years, 
of the Island of Jamaica, in the West Indies, where her 
husband, Daniel Flowerdew, held an office under the Home 
Government. They were natives of England, and returned 
thither late in the last century. Shortly afterwards (1801) 
he died, and she undertook a boarding-school for young la- 
dies, at Islington, near London, and the publication of her 
poems (mostly written at Islington), for support. Her po- 
ems " were written at different periods of life — some indeed 
at a very early age, and others under the very severe pres- 
sure of misfortune." Her later poems were either not pub- 
lished, or were printed separately. 



250 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

She attached herself, while at Islington, to the Baptist 
Church, Worship Street, under the pastoral care of the 
Rev. Dr. John Evans, who was of Aiian affinities, as was, 
also, Mrs. Flowerdew. In 1814, she removed her school to 
Bury St. Edmunds, and subsequently to Ipswich. She 
died, September 23, 1830, in her seventy-second year, at 
Whitton. Her " Harvest Hymn," 

"Fountain of mercy, God of love ! " etc., 

is found in a large number of Collections. The following 
stanzas are from a short ]3oem on "The Folly of Scep- 
ticism ": 

" Let sceptics boast theii' reasoning mind, — 
How vast ! how free ! how unconfmed ! — 

And vain conclusions draw ; 
Claiming an undisputed right 
To -wing their hold aspiring flight, 
Unfettered hy each law. 

"Is this the happiness they boast, — 
On life's tempestuous ocean lost, 

Without a pilot near, — 
To furl their sails in angry skies ? — 
Through dangerous storms, that often rise, 

Their tremblmg bark to steer ? 

' ' Sweet Kevelation ! Power divine ! 
The pilot's generous aid is thine ; 

From error thou art free ; 
The bark, committed to thy care, 
Shall to its destined port repair, 

Through life's tempestuous sea." 



DAVID EYERARD FORD. 

Me. Ford was bom at Long-Melford, Suffolk, England. 
His father, the Rev. David Ford (1763-1836), was, for forty- 
two years, and until his death, the pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Church of Long-Melford. His mother, Mary Ever- 



DAVID EVERARD FORD. 351 

ard (1763-1842), was tlie eldest daughter of a deacon of the 
Baptist Cliurcli, Devonshire Square, London. The father 
settled at Long-Melford in 1794, and married shortly after. 

The son, David, was the eldest of three brothers, 
the youngest of whom succeeded his father and then re- 
moved to Islington, London. David fitted for the ministry 
at Wymondley College, Hertfordshire. He was ordained, 
October 11, 1821, the pastor of the Old Town Congrega- 
tional Chai^el, Lymington, on the Solent, overlooking the 
Isle of Wight. He remained in this charge twenty-two 
years, useful and honored. His preaching, pungent and 
forcible, resulted in large accessions to his church. In No- 
vember, 1843, he accepted a unanimous call from the newly- 
formed church, Greengate Chapel, Salford, Manchester. 

Mr. Ford early developed a remarkable passion for music, 
and in his early ministry published several volumes designed 
as " an Introduction and Helps to the Art and Science of 
Sacred Music." In 1823, he issued, in two successive vol- 
umes, " The First Set of Original Psalm and Hymn Tunes," 
and "The Second Set," etc. "A Third Set" appeared in 
1826 ; his " Rudiments of Music," in 1829 ; his " Progress- 
ive Exercises for the Voice," in 1830 ; and his Sixth Book, 
" Original Psalm and Hymn Tunes," in 1833. Large edi- 
tions of these books were called for, especially in the coun- 
try districts. In 1828, he published his " Hymns, chiefly 
on the Parables of Christ." 

Mr. Ford now began the publication of a series of small 
volumes on practical religious themes, which, also, had a 
wide circulation, and proved very useful. " Decapolis ; or 
the Individual Obligation of Christians to Save Souls from 
Death," was issued in 1840 ; " Chorazin ; or An Appeal to 
the Child of Many Prayers," in 1841 ; " Damascus ; or Con- 
version in Relation to the Grace of God and the Agency of 
Man," in 1842 ; *' Laodicea ; or Religious Declensions," in 
1844 ; and " Alarm in Zion ; or A Few Thoughts on the 
Present State of Religion," in 1848. He also published 
(1843) "Pastoral Addresses," and (1849) "Congregational 
Psalmody." 



252 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

BENJAMIN FRANCIS. 

1734-1799. 

Benjamin Francis was a native of Wales. He was born 
in 1734, and educated wholly at home, not having learned 
English until his twentieth year. He joined the Baptist 
Church of his native place in the fifteenth year of his age. 
In 1753, he entered the Baptist Academy at Bristol, England, 
then under the care of the Rev. Messrs. Bernard Foskitt 
and Hugh Evans. Having pursued the usual course of 
preparation for the ministry, he preached a short time 
at Sodbury ; and, in 1757, accepted a call to the pastoral 
charge of the Baptist Church of Shortwood [Horsley], where 
he was ordained in 1758. 

He preached, of course, in the English language, the use 
of which he had fully acquired ; but often discoursed in 
his native tongue, on the occasion of his frequent \dsits to 
Wales. Full of fervid zeal and glowing piety, his preach- 
ing so attracted the multitude, as to make it necessary 
thrice to enlarge their house of worship. A chapel, also, 
was built for him, at the village of Minchin Hampton, 
three miles from Horsley, where he conducted worship on 
the evening of every alternate Sabbath. To meet the ex- 
penses of these building operations, he visited London for 
funds, and was there invited to take charge of one of the 
churches of his denomination, but refused to be called 
away from his country flock. He gave himself wholly to 
his work, and continued in it until his decease, December 
14, 1799. 

Mr. Francis published but little : " Conflagration, a Poem, 
in Four Parts" (1770); "An Elegy on the Death of the 
Rev. G. Whitefield" (1770) ; two volumes of Welsh Hymns 
(1774 and 1786) ; and " An Elegy on the Death of the Rev. 
Caleb E^ans, D.D." (1791), the son of his old preceptor; 
these were all his publications. He wrote a few English 
hymns for particular occasions. His dedication hymn, com- 
mencing with 

" In sweet exalted strains," 



FULBERTUS CARNOTENSIS. 253 

was written, to be sung, September 18, 1774, on the occa- 
sion of the last enlargement of his church edifice. 

" Praise the Saviour, all ye nations!" etc., 

was written, in three double stanzas, to be sung at a Collec- 
tion for poor Ministers, or Missionaries. These hymns and 
two others were included in the first edition (1787) of Rip- 
pon's Selection. In a later edition, appeared one of his 
hymns, in sixteen stanzas, " composed during a Fit of se- 
vere Illness, June, 1795,"— of which the 12th, 15th, and 16th 
stanzas are here given : 

" The sun that illumines the regions of light, 
Now shines on mine eyes from above ; 
But, Oh ! how transcendently glorious the sight ! 
My soul is all wonder and love. 

" But, Oh! what a life, what a rest, what a joy, 
Shall I know when I've mounted above ; 
Praise, praise, shall my triumphing powers employ: 
My God! I shall burn with thy love. 

" Come, come, my Redeemer! this moment release 
The soul thou hast bought with thy blood, 
And bid me ascend the fair regions of peace. 
To feast on the smiles of my God." 



FULBERTUS CARNOTENSIS. 

1028. 

FuLBEKT, Bishop of Chartres, France, was born in the 
latter half of the tenth century. Of his nativity no certain 
information can be had. He was instructed, it is said, by 
the learned Gerbert, Archbishop of Rheims (afterwards, 
Pope Sylvester II). Coming to Charti^es, from Rome, he 
lectured in the Cathedral schools. His reputation for su- 
perior scholarship and holiness brought students in large 



254 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

numbers to Cliartres, and gave it great celebrity. He was, 
also, Chancellor to the King, Robert II. 

At the decease (1007) of Rodulph, Bishop of Chartres, 
Fnlbert was chosen his successor. He occupied the chair, 
with great dignity and renown, for twenty-one and a half 
years, until his decease, April 10, 1028. Dupin speaks of 
him as " one of the jDrincipal restorers of belles-lettres, the 
sciences, and theology." He left a Collection of 134 letters 
(of which Dupin gives an elaborate analysis), 9 sermons, 
several hymns, and other poetical pieces, — all, of course, in 
Latin. His "Remains" were published (1608) at Paris. 
The hymns were written for the use of his diocese. The 
original of the hymn, "Chorus novse Hierusalem" (1020) 
may be found in Daniel's Thesaurus, I., 222. [See Camp- 
bell.] 



PAUL GERHARDT. 

1606-1676. 

Gerhaedt, the people's poet, and, next to Luther, the 
most popular hymnist of Germany, was trained in the 
school of affliction. Living and serving God in troublous 
times, he drank deeply of the cup of bitterness. The light 
of his holy life shone all the brighter by reason of the sur- 
rounding darkness. 

He was born (1606) in the humble village of Grafenhai- 
nichen, in Electoral Saxony; — his father. Christian Ger- 
hardt, was burgomaster of the town. Trained for the 
ministry during the calamitous period of "The Thirty 
Years' War," he found no opportunity for settlement 
until its close. For a while he taught in the family of 
Andreas Bertholdt, Chancery Advocate, Berlin, Pmssia. 
His leisure he employed in writing hymns, and making 
love to Anna Maria Bertholdt, one of his pupils, and daugh- 
ter of the Advocate. About the close of 1651, being then in 



PAUL GEEHAEDT. 255 

his forty-fifth year, he obtained the humble pastorate of Mit- 
tenwalde, and was ordained, at Berlin, ]^}'ovember 18, 1651. 
He obtained, also, the hand of his faithful Anna Maria, 
February 11, 1655. Several of his best hymns were now 
WTitten, and found their way into the " Berlin Hymn-Book " 
(1653) and other Collections in Brandenburg and Saxony, 
yielding him no small popularity. 

His preferment soon followed. In the summer of 1657, 
he was called to the third Diaconate of the great church of 
St. Nicholas, Berlin. Crowds flocked to hear him preach, 
and his hymns were sung with enthusiasm, as Luther's had 
been. His appearance was quite prepossessing. He was 
of middle height, of firm and resolute bearing, cheerful, 
yet of a quiet mood. He preached persuasively and lov- 
ingly, and was esteemed the model pastor, and the most 
popular preacher of the toAvn. 

An Edict was issued by the Elector, Frederick William, 
September 16, 1664, requiring the clergy to subscribe an 
Act for the virtual introduction of the Reformed faith, as 
professed by the Elector, on penalty of ejectment from 
their resi^ective livings ; — an Act not unlike the " Act of 
Conformity" enforced by Charles II., of England, only two 
years before. Gerhardt, and most of the clergy, were Lu- 
therans. It is thought that it was on this occasion, Ger- 
hardt wrote his touching hymn, 

" 1st Gott fiir mich, so trete," etc. 
("If God be on my side," etc.) 

He was suffered to continue at his post, until February 6, 
1666, when he was called upon to subscribe, and, refusing, 
was ejected. Great interest was made in his behalf by the 
citizens, and the negotiations were prolonged nearly a year. 
Finally, February 4, 1667, he resigned his charge, and his 
ministry in Berlin, greatly to the grief of the citizens, 
came to a close. 

It has been affirmed, that it was after this date, while he 
was on his way, with his devoted wife, from Berlin to Sax- 



256 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ony, that lie ^vrote liis most affecting hymn, translated by 
John Wesley, and, in his version, beginning with 

" Commit tliou all thy griefs," — 

but, in many of the Collections, beginning with 

" Give to the winds thy fears." 

It is certain, however, that it was published in the Collec- 
tion of Gephardt's hymns in 1666, and Kiibler says, that 
" it was first published in 1659, and according to tradition 
was written by Gerhardt to comfort his anxious wife." 
They had lost their first child at Mitten walde, and their cir- 
cumstances while there were very much straitened. Dur- 
ing his residenc3 at Berlin, also, death invaded his house- 
hold again and again. One son alone of all his children 
was left to him. And now, March 5, 1668, his dearly- 
beloved wife, after a painful decline, was taken from him, 
and he was left almost desolate. 

In October of the same year, he was appointed Arch- 
deacon of Liibben, in Saxony, and with his only surviving 
child, Paul Friedrich, he removed thither in June, 1669. 
Here he remained, unmolested in the faithful performance 
of the duties of his honorable and responsible position, for 
seven years ; laying down his work with his life, June 7, 
1676, after a ministry of twenty-five years, and in the 
seventieth year of his age. 

The first complete edition of his Hymns was published 
by J. E. Ebeling, Berlin (1666-1667) in ten folio parts. 
Schultze says " that there is no song bearing his name that 
had not been printed in 1667." Wackernagel says, — 
"Where is the Evangelical congregation that does not 
know Paul Gerhardt ? in what churches are not his holy 
songs heard? What the pious Catherine Zell, of Stras- 
burg, says of beautiful spiritual songs in her h\Tnn-book 
is true of him : — ' The journeyman mechanic at his work, 
the servant-maid washing her dishes, the ploughman and 
i-ine-dresser in the fields, the mother by her weeping infant 
in the cradle, sing them.' High and low, poor and rich 



PAUL GERHABDT. 257 

alike, find them equally consoling, eqiially edifying ; in all 
stations, among young and old, there are examples to be 
found where some song of Gerhardt, at particular periods 
in the history of the inner life, was engraven forever on 
the soul, and subsequently became the centre point of the 
dearest reminiscences. . . . The songs of no other poet, 
either before or since, have ever produced so mighty an 
effect, or obtained so speedy and so wide a circulation." 

Many of his hymns were published in Johann Criiger's 
"Praxis Pietatis Melica." After his decease they were 
collected, and published, as revised by himself, from his 
manuscripts, by his only surviving son, Paul Friedrich. 
The whole number is one hundred and twenty-three. The 
hymn, of which Dr. Alexander's translation begins with 

" O sacred head, now wounded," 

was doubtless suggested by Bernard's Latin hymn, 

" Salve, caput cruentum! " etc, 

A hymn, by Toplady, from Jacobi, beginning with 

" Holy Ghost! dispel our sadness," 

appears to have been suggested by a part of Gerhardt's 
hymn, 

" du aUersliss'te Freude," tftc. 

The most of his hymns are of considerable length, aver- 
aging nine or ten double stanzas. His famous Marriage 
Hymn contains seventeen six-line stanzas ; of which the 
first three and the sixteenth, in Miss Winkworth's version, 
are subjoined : 

"the marriage of christian hearts." 

" Full of wonder, full of ai^t, 

Full of wisdom, full of power, 
Fiill of grace to charm the heart, 

Full of solace, hour by hour. 
Full of wonders, ye shall prove 
Is the bond of wedded love. 
17 



258 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

"Two, who ne'er upon this earth 
Have each other's faces seen, 
Never, from then* hoixr of birth, 

In each other's thoughts have been, 
Find their hearts and hands shall meet 
In a bond God maketh sweet. 

' ' Here a father trains his child, 
There another watches his ; 

Driven by winds uncertain, wild, 
Siire their paths through life must miss 

Nay, but when the time is there. 

See a well-consorted pair. 

" And at last, when all fulfilled 
Are his purposes of love 
Here on earth, He yet doth build 
Fairer homes in heaven above, 
Where^ enwrapped in his embrace, 
They shall know his depths of grace." 



THOMAS aiBB01S"S. 

1720-1785. 

More than a century ago, the Eev. Dr. Thomas Gibbons 
occupied an eminently influential position among the 
Dissenting ministry of London. He was born, May 31, 
1720, at Eeak, in the parish of Swaffham Prior. His father, 
Rev. Thomas Gibbons, was the pastor of a Dissenting con- 
gregation, first at Olney (the home, subsequently, of New- 
ton and Cowper), and then at Royston, in Hertfordshire. 
At an early age, he sought to enter the ministry of the 
Gospel, and was sent to a grammar-school at Little Swaff- 
ham, and then to another in the same county. His aca- 
demical studies were pursued (1735-1742) first, at Deptford, 
Kent, with Dr. Taylor, and then with Mr. Eames, at Moor- 
fields, Middlesex. 



THOMAS GIBBONS. 259 

He was duly licensed to preach, by the London Associa- 
tion of Independent Ministers, July 5, 1742, and, the same 
year, was employed as assistant to the Rev. Thomas Bures, 
the pastor of Silver Street Presbyterian Chapel, London. 
A year later he was chosen to succeed the Rev. Robert 
Wright, as the pastor of the Independent Church at Haber- 
dashers' Hall, Staining Lane, Cheapside, where he was 
ordained, October 27, 1743. This position he held to the 
end of life. He married, in 1744, Miss Hannah Shuttle- 
wood, whose father, John, was a London minister, and 
whose grandfather, John, of Leicestershire, was one of the 
ejected clergy of 1662. 

In addition to his pastoral office, he accepted (1754) the 
Tutorship of Logic, Ethics, Metaphysics, and Rhetoric, in 
the Mile End Academy, as successor of Dr. Zeph. Marry- 
att. Five years later he succeeded the Rev. William 
Guyse, as one of the Sabbath evening Lecturers at Monk- 
well Street Meeting-house. He proved a valuable friend to 
the Rev. Samuel Davies, afterwards the President of the 
College of New Jersey, when he visited England (1753) to 
obtain funds for that infant institution ; from which, in 
1760, Mr. Gibbons received the honorary degree of A.M. 
In 1764, the honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him 
by the University of Aberdeen. 

He was a ready writer as well as a graceful preacher. 
His publications, including occasional sermons and pam- 
phlets, were more than fifty in number. His " Poems on 
Several Occasions " appeared (1743) in the first year of his 
ministry. Three of his " Sermons " were published in 1745 ; 
and one in each of the years, 1746, 1747, and 1748. An 
" Elegy" followed his first poetic volume, in 1746, and an- 
other (on Dr. Watts) in 1748. He translated, a] so. Dr. Watts' 
Latin Poems, into English verse. He was admitted, during 
the last six years of Dr. Watts' life, to great intimacy with 
the venerable divine. He published (1750) " Juvenilia ; or 
Poems on Various Subjects of Devotion and Virtue." Oc- 
casional Discourses followed almost yearly, with, now and 
then, a poetical venture. 



260 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

In 1762, he sent forth fifteen " Sermons on Various Sub- 
jects, with an Hymn adapted to each, designed to assist 
the Devotion of the Family and Clergy." Appended to 
the fourth of these Sermons, is the popular hymn, 

" Now let our souls, on wings sublime," etc. 

A Dissertation on " Rhetoric," the substance of his Lec- 
tures, followed in 1767. Two years later appeared his 
"Hymns adapted to Divine Worship. In two Books"; 
containing 200 hymns, of which 150 are from his own pen. 
The 69th, of Book II., is a Missionary Hymn in seven parts, 
containing 46 stanzas, from which are taken the hymns, 

"Great God! the nations of the earth," etc., 
and 

"Lord! send thy word and let it fly," etc. 

The 35th hymn of Book I. is on " Tlie Gospel-Feast," and 
begins with 

"On Zion, his most holy moimt." 

Three years later (1772), he sent forth " The Christian 
Minister, in Three Poetic Epistles. To which are added, 
Poetical Versions of several Parts of Scrij)ture, and Transla- 
tions of Poems from Greek and Latin Writers. " Again, three 
years later (1775), he published " An English Version of the 
Latin Epitaphs in 'The Non-conformists' Memorial': to 
which is added, a Poem sacred to the Memory of the two 
thousand Ministers ejected or silenced by the Act of Uni- 
formity, August 24, 1662." In 1777, he brought out his 
" Female Worthies : or The Lives and Memorials of emi- 
nently Pious Women"; also, his "Essays in Prose and 
Verse, partly Collected and partly Original, for the Im- 
provement of Younger Minds." "The Memoirs of the 
Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D.," followed in 1780, and a second 
volume of " Hymns adapted to Divine Worship," in 1784. 
The hymns in this volume (262) are, with a single excep- 
tion, original. 

Dr. Gibbons died, of apoplexy, quite suddenly, Febru- 
ary 22, 1785. His piety and spirituality were remarkable ; 



CHAELES GILES. 261 

nis manners urbane and courteous in a high degree ; his 
temi3er cheerful, and his disposition generous. His liter- 
ary attainments were respectable, and his creed evangel- 
ical. He was greatly esteemed by Lady Huntingdon and 
her friends, with whose evangelical labors he was in full 
sympathy. In later years he numbered Dr. Samuel John- 
son among his warmly attached friends. After his decease 
three volumes of his Sermons (1787) were published. 

The stanzas that follow are from the 11th hymn, Book 
II., of the 2d volume, containing seven stanzas : 

" Thy goodness, Lord ! our souls confess, 
Thy goodness we adore ; 
A spring whose blessings never fail, 
A sea without a shore. 

' ' Sun, moon, and stars thy love attest 
In every cheerful ray ; 
Love draws the curtain of the night, 
And love restores the day. 

" Thy bounty every season crowns, 
With all the bliss it yields ; 
With joyful clusters bend the vines, 
With harvests wave the fields. 

" But chiefly thy compassions, Lord! 
Are in the Gospel seen ; 
There, like the sun, thy mercy shines, 
Without a cloud between." 



CHARLES GILES. 

1783-1867. 

Me. Giles was born, February 22, 1783, near Fort 
Griswold, Conn. After his conversion, which was quite 
remarkable, he connected himself with the Methodist 
Church, and devoted himself to the work of the ministry. 



262 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

He was admitted on trial, in the Philadelphia Conference 
of 1805 ; and in 1808, at a session of the New York Confer- 
ence, he was ordained a Deacon. He was ordained an Elder 
by the Genesee Conference in 1811, having joined it in 
July, 1810. His first appointment was at Chenango, and 
the second at Western, N. Y. In 1814, he was appointed 
Presiding Elder for the Oneida District ; in 1808, of the 
Chenango District ; and again, in 1822, of the Oneida 
District, until 1825. He united with the Oneida Confer- 
ence in 1829, and preached successively at Whitesboro, 
Rome, Steuben, Westmoreland, Manlius, Jordan, and 
Weedsport, N. Y. In 1836, he joined the Black Eiver 
Conference. He labored, in successive years, at Oswego, 
Adams, Salina, Geddes, Liverpool, and Oriskany, 'N. Y. 
He was placed on the superannuated list in 1853, and at 
the advanced age of eighty-four, he died, August 30, 1867, 
at Syracuse, N. Y. 

He was a laborious pioneer, and travelled extensively in 
the central and northern portions of New York. "He 
was a self-made man ; and, in the dejjartments of science, 
biblical knowledge, taste for the beautiful, and love of na- 
ture, his advancement inspired the people. Rich in fact, 
brilliant in thought, and intense in love for dying men, he 
was a man of vast power. Intellectual and emotional, his 
eloquence in the days of his prime was, at times, almost 
unearthly, and multitudes, now sainted, owe their conver- 
sion to his instrumentality." 

The favorite hymn, 

" This world is poor from shore to shore," etc., 

is a part, transposed and altered, of a hymn in eight stan- 
zas, " By Rev. C. Giles," found in " The Harp : a Collection 
of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. By Rev. Hiram May. 
Perry [N. Y.] 1840." In the altered form it appeared, in 
six stanzas, in a " New Selection," by the Rev. " James Gal- 
lagher, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1835." In the original, the first 
stanza begins with 

" The fading world promiscuous flows." 



THOMAS HORNBLOWER GILL. 263 

" The Harp " contains, also, an Elegiac Poem in 17 double 
stanzas, written by Mr. Giles on tlie occasion of the sudden 
death of Miss Esther Frink, and called, " A Father's Lam- 
entation for his Child." Two of its stanzas are here given : 

' ' Remember how sweetly she sung, 

In numbers of wisdom and grace, 
While glory inspired her tongue, 

And seemed to embellish her face : 
She seemed like an angel of love. 

Her conscience so tender and clear; 
The fullness of grace she did prove, 

Which triumphed o'er sorrow and fear. 

" But Esther is gone, she is gone ! 

She has taken her flight to the skies ; 
She worships around the bright throne. 

The tears are all wiped from her eyes : 
She 's gone to her Saviour above, 

With angels her spirit has joined; 
She di^inks of the ocean of love, 

A mansion for her was designed." 



THOMAS HOENBLOWER GILL, 

1819 . 

Mr. Gill is of Puritan antecedents. Among his ances- 
tors is numbered the Rev. Richard Serjeant, of Stone, Wor- 
cestershire, England, — "a good while assistant to Mr. 
Baxter, at Kidderminster," whom Baxter describes as " a 
man of extraordinary prudence, humility, sincerity, self- 
denial, patience, and blamelessness of life," one of the 
ejected clergymen of 1662. Mr. Gill is a descendant of one 
of Mr. Serjeant's two daughters, and was born (1819) at Bir- 
mingham. He was trained, by his parents, a Unitarian, and 
was educated at the Birmingham Grammar- School. He de- 
clined, at nineteen, to enter upon an Oxford University 



264 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

course, because lie could not conscientiously subscribe to 
the Thirty-Nine Articles. But, from tliat time, lie devoted 
himself, for seven years, to the study of the Greek New 
Testament. 

He contributed (1846) eight hymns to a Unitarian Collec- 
tion, compiled by the Rev. George Dawson. Five of them 
are found in the "Hymn and Tune Book" (1869) of the 
American Unitarian Association. The true light now be- 
gan to shine upon him. " Brought up," he says, " in the 
utmost strictness of dogmatic Unitarianism, I first began to 
chafe under the yoke, through my exceeding delight in the 
hymns of Watts, and from the contrast between their na- 
tive power and beauty, and their shrunken and dwindled 
plight, when shorn of their inspiring theology by Unitarian 
mutilations. It seemed to me strange that the gain of truth 
should be the loss of glory, and I longed to appropriate the 
strains which I so loved. The assiduous perusal of the 
Greek Testament, for many years, showed me clearly, that 
Unitarianism failed to interpret the Book of Life. As truth 
after truth broke upon my gaze, God put a new song into 
my mouth. My first true song of Zion was, — 

' Saviour ! needs the world no longer 
To rejoice beneath thy light ? 
Have we lovers sweeter, stronger ? 
Beams for us a sun more bright ? 

Are we weary 
Of thy mercy and thy might ? ' " 

[t is a hymn of seven stanzas— the 35th of his "Golden 
Chain of Praise," and written " when fresh from the con- 
templation of the misery and anarchy of Shelley's Life," 
Step by step he advanced, until 1849, " when," he says of 
himself, " I first saw clearly whither I was going, and when 
the divine nature of the Lord Jesus rose clearer and clearer 
before me, until it was fully recognized by — 

' Oh ! mean may seem this house of clay, 
Yet 'twas the Lord's abode ; 
Our feet may mourn this thorny way, 
Yet here Emmanuel trod.' " 



THOMAS HOENBLOWER GILL. £65 

This is the first of eleven stanzas, in which he confesses his 
faith in the incarnate Son of God. Twenty-fonr such Gos- 
pel hymns he now contributed to the second edition (1853) 
of Mr. Dawson's Collection. From that time, he fully and 
heartily espoused the orthodox faith, and consorted with 
the Evangelical wing of the Church of England. Of inde- 
pendent means, he has given himself to historical and the- 
ological studies, residing most of the time, alternately, at 
Birmingham, London, and Lewisham, Kent, He is a stren- 
uous opponent of Ritualism, and assiduously devotes him- 
self to the promotion of Protestant, and especially Puritan, 
views and movements — " as a national power and a spiritual 
principle." 

He published, in 1858, "The Anniversaries: Poems in 
Commemoration of Great Men and Great Events"; and a 
still more elaborate and extended work, in 1866, entitled, 
"The Papal Drama: a Historical Essay " ; which NewTnan 
pronounces " the most learned work that has come from 
the Evangelical side for the last forty years." At the earn- 
est solicitation of friends both in England and America, he 
collected and published his hymns, as " The Golden Chain 
of Praise," dedicating the book to his " dearest brother, the 
Reverend J. C. Gill, M.A., . . . . a powerful and persua- 
sive preacher. " It is not likely that his hymns, though of 
a high order, will become general favorites. They lack 
simplicity, and are too intricate. 

Here are the first four stanzas of his hymn, on the theme, 
" Thy statutes have been my song": 

" Full many a smile, fuU many a song 
Makes glad my portion here ; 
Lord ! all my strains to thee belong; 
Thou sendest all my cheer. 

" But, O my God ! my songs divine 
Are sweetest far to me ; 
My singing robes most glorious shine, 
Put on, dear Lord ! for thee. 

"Joy! joy! when thou the theme dost lend, 
When thou the song dost make ! 



266 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

How sweet thy gifts on thee to spend, 
Thy glory home to take ! 

"I sing because thy works are fair; 
Thy glory makes me glad ; 
The garments bright of praise I wear, 
For thou art brightly clad." 



WILLIAM GOODE. 

1762-1816. 

A godly and an eminently useful divine was given to the 
churcli in tlie person of tlie Rev. William Goode. He was 
born, April 2, 1762, of pious parents, at Buckingliam, Eng- 
land. While yet a school-boy, he was brought under serious 
impressions. He profited greatly by the ministry of the 
Rev. Mr. Simpson. At the age of thirteen, though of the 
Church of England, he was sent to the school of the Rev. 
William Bull (the friend of Kewton and Cowj^er), the Dis- 
senting minister of Newport Pagnell. From fourteen to 
sixteen, he assisted his father in business, but devoted his 
early morning hours to the study of Hebrew. He fitted 
for college (1778-1779), under the instruction of the Rev. 
Thomas Clarke, Rector of Chesham Bois, 

He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, as a commoner 
in 1780, and graduated in 1784. He was ordained a dea- 
con, the same year, and obtained the curacy of Abbotts 
Langley, Hertfordshire. Two years later, he became the 
curate of the godly William Romaine, author of " The Life, 
the Walk, and the Triumph of Faith." The same year he 
married Miss Rebecca Coles, daughter of Mr. Abraham 
Coles, of St. Albans. Mr. Romaine was the Rector of the 
united parishes of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe and St. 
Anne's, Blackfriars, London ; and at his decease, July 25, 
1795, Mr. Goode, on the presentation of the crown, was ap- 
pointed his successor. He was subsequently appointed 



WILLIAM GOODE. 267 

Lecturer of St. John's, Wapping, and at St. Lawrence^ 
Jewry. 

Following in the steps, as he partook of the spirit, of the 
sainted Romaine, he took an active part in the promotion 
of the various benevolent and religious movements of the 
day. His labors among his own people were abundant, 
faithful, and productive of great good. For twenty-one 
years he served as the Secretary of the Society for the Re- 
lief of Poor Pious Clergymen. He was, also, one of the 
founders, and most earnest advocates, of the Church Mis- 
sionary Society. In one of his journeys, with the Secre- 
tary, for the promotion of the noble work of the Society, 
in September, 1814, he was taken ill at Ipswich, and from 
the eif ects of this attack he never recovered. After a pro- 
tracted illness, in which he endured great suffering with 
exemplary patience and resignation to the Di\ine wiU, he 
closed his useful life, April 15, 1816, in his fifty-fourth year. 

In addition to several occasional Sermons, and a Series of 
Essays on " The Scripture Titles of Christ," contributed to 
The Christian Guardian, he published, in 1811, "An En- 
tire New Version of the Book of Psalms ; in which an At- 
tempt is made to accommodate them to the Worship of the 
Christian Church, in a Variety of Measures now in general 
Use : with Original Prefaces and Notes, Critical and Ex- 
planatory. In two Volumes";— of which a thu'd edition 
appeared in 1816. He had attempted to modernize some 
passages of " Tlie Old Version," but was led at length to 
versify the Psalms anew. His version failed, however, to 
supplant Tate and Brady, which still keeps its place in the 
Prayer Book. 

At his death, he left, in shorthand, 156 Essays on " The 
Titles of our Lord," which were published (1822) by his son 
William, the late eminent Dean of Ripon, author of sev- 
eral able treatises in opposition to the Oxford Movement. 
The title of the book is, "Essays on aU the Scriptural 
Names and Titles of Christ ; or The Economy of the Gos- 
pel Dispensation as exhibited in the Person, Character, and 
Offices of the Redeemer." 



268 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

The following is the second Part of his second Version 
of Psalm 47 : 

"Jesus ascends on high, 

And shouts Oiir God stuTOund ; 
The trumpets hail him through the sky, 
With solemn sound ; 
Sing praises to our God, 
United praises sing ; 
Your praise repeat, and shout abroad 
Immanuel's King. 

"O'er all th' obedient earth 
Our God exalted reigns : 
To him devote, with skillful mirth, 
The solemn strains : 
Let heathen lands adore, 
His just dominion own, 
While endless holiness and power 
Secure his throne. 

"Earth's sovereign princes join 

With Abr'ham's favored race. 
Where Abr'ham's God, with power divine, 
Displays his grace : 
Its mightiest shields shall fall, — 
By him they rule, or die ; 
Jesus ascends, He reigns o'er all. 
Exalted high." 



BENJAMIN GOUGH. 

1805 . 

Me. Gough has long been a Wesleyan local preacher. 
He was born (1805) at Southborough, Kent, England. In 
early life he found his way to London, and entered into mer-, 
cantile business, and after pursuing it with credit and suc- 
cess for many years, retired to his estate, Mountfield, a few 
miles west of Canterbury. 



BENJAMIN GOUGH. 269 

While a resident of London, lie published (18rs2) "An 
Indian Tale, and Other Poems." He has made frequent 
contributions to evangelical periodicals, pjiiicularly The 
Wesleyan Metliodist Magazine. K\>t 1i"j retirement to 
the country, he gathered these productiv. ns, and published 
them, with others, under the title of " Lyra Sabbatica : 
Hymns and Poems for Sundays and Holy Days." The 
Preface is dated, "Mountfield, near Faversham, May 1st, 
186f)." " They breathe a Catholic spirit, exalting Christ as 
the world's Redeemer, and stimulating to a pure and active 
Christian life." The volume contains eighty- two lyrics, on 
a great variety of sacred themes, quite respectable as poetic 
compositions, and some of them having considerable merit. 
A second volume, entitled, "Kentish Lyrics," containing 
also several hymns suitable for worship, was published in 
1867. From the first of these two volumes, the following 
two, from a lyric of five, stanzas are taken : 

"Sweet is the hour of prayer, and sweet the calm 
Sequestered nooks, where Sabbath silence reigns ; 

The whispering breeze is love ; the air is balm. 
The sunshine heavenly ; and the shady lanes 

O'erarched with elms, like some cathedral nave, 
Inspire devotion ; while, upon the ear. 
The swallow's twitter, and the sheep-bell near, 

Fall softly, and tall trees in chorus wave. 

And earth in Sabbath smiles, like flowers upon a grave. 

"Sweet is the Sabbath morning, when the chimes 
Ring out their welcome music o'er the land ; — 

Rich music ! — Gospel call for gospel times, 
Which princes feel, and peasants understand. 

What gentle undulations swell and rise, 

Wafted o'er hill and dale, like Mercy's voice. 
Whose loving accents bid our hearts rejoice ! 

O trembling prodigal ! lift up thine eyes ! 

O troubled child of God ! look upward to the skies ! " 



270 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

SIR EGBERT GRANT. 

1785-1838. 

Sir Robert Grant was born (1785) of Scotch parents, 
at Malda, Bengal, India. His father, Charles Grant, Esq. 
(1746-1823), for more than twenty years (1767-1790), re- 
sided, as a servant of the East India Company, in India. 
On his return to England, he occupied (1794-1808) the hon- 
orable position of a Director, and, in 1805, was chosen 
Chairman of the Court of Directors of the Company. He 
also sat (1802-1819) in Parliament for Inverness. He was 
associated with Wilberforce and other philanthropists of 
the period, in Anti- Slavery efforts, in the distribution of 
the Scriptures, in procuring an Ej^iscopal establishment 
and an open door for the Gospel in India, and in other 
similar movements. He was conspicuous for piety, phi- 
lanthropy, integrity, statesmanship, and salutary control 
over leading minds. In 1772, he married Miss Frazer, a 
most exemplary Christian lady. 

Robert, their second son, was in his sixth year when his 
parents returned from India and fixed their residence in 
London. He was educated at Cambridge LTniversity, and, 
with his elder brother, Charles, afterwards Lord Glenelg 
(1778-1866), graduated at Magdalen College, A.B., in 1801, 
and A.M., 1804. He became, shortly after graduation, a 
Fellow of his College. He was admitted to the bar, Janu- 
ary, 1807, and became a successful practitioner. He pub- 
lished (1813) " A Sketch of the History of the East India 
Company," to 1773; and "The Expediency maintained of 
continuing the System by which the Trade and Govern- 
ment of India are now regulated." He entered Parliament 
(1826) for Inverness, and subsequently represented Fins- 
bury. He was honored (1831) with a seat in the Privy 
Council, and was appointed Judge Advocate. He was, 
also, a member of the Board of Commissioners for the Af- 
fairs of India. In 1834, he was appointed Governor of 



SIR ROBEET GRANT. 271 

Bombay, and returned to India. He died, July 9, 1838, at 
Dapoorie, Western India. 

He was of medium stature and robust constitution, with 
a full and ruddy face, and, in his later days, pure white 
hair. He was an excellent speaker, his voice musical and 
perfectly at command, his language chaste and elegant, 
and his manners highly graceful. His moral character was 
perfectly unsullied, and he was held in high estimation by 
all parties. 

He Avrote a few (12) occasional hymns or poems, at various 
periods of his life, which after his decease were published 
(1839) by his elder brotlier. Lord Glenelg, in a volume en- 
titled " Sacred Poems." His hymn beginning with 

" Oh! worship the King, all glorious above," 

was contributed, in six stanzas, to the February Number of 
the Christian Ohsevder, for 1806, with the signature, "E. — 
Y, D. R." A revised edition of the same hymn was repub- 
lished in the February Number of 1812, by request of the 
same " E. — Y. D. R." The significance of the signature has 
not been determined. 

"Saviour! when, in dust, to thee," etc., 

was contributed, as a " Litany," to the November Number 
of the CJiristian Observer, for 1815, without signature. The 
follo\ving are the first and last of three stanzas on the text, 
" Whom have I in heaven but thee ? " — 

' ' Lord of earth ! thy forming hand 
Well this beauteous frame hath planned, — 
Woods that wave, and hills that tower, 
Ocean rolliug in his power; 
All that strikes the gaze unsought. 
All that charms the lonely thought; 
Friendship— gem transcending price, 
Love — a flower from Paradise ; 
Yet, amidst this scene so fair, 
Should I cease thy smile to share, 
What were all its joys to me ? 
Whom have I on earth but thee ? 



272 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

' ' Lord of earth, and heaven ! my breast 
Seeks in thee its only rest : 
I was lost ; thy accents mild 
Homeward lured thy wandering child: 
I was blind ; thy healing ray 
Charmed the long eclipse away. 
Source of eveiy joy I know ! 
Solace of my eveiy woe ! 
Oh ! if once thy smile divine 
Ceased upon my soul to shine, 
What were earth or heaven to me ? 
Whom have I in each but thee ? " 



JANE LEWERS GRAY. 

1796-1871. 

Mrs. Gray was the wife of the Rev. John Gray, D.D., 
for many years the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Easton, Pa, They were both natives of Ireland. She 
was a native of Castle Clayney, in the North of Ireland, 
and the daughter of William Lewers, a ruling elder in the 
Presbyterian Church. The home of her childhood, the pi- 
ous ways of the household, the worship of the rustic peo- 
ple in the humble sanctuary of her fathers, with 

"its low-thatched roof, 

Its floor of trodden clay, 
And the old pastor's time-worn face, 

And wig of silver gray," — 

are beautifully sketched in her " Sabbath Reminiscences," 
beginning with 

' ' I remember, I remember, 

Wlien Sabbath morning rose. 
We changed for garments neat and clean, 
Our soiled week-day clothes ; 



JANE LEWERSGRAY. 273 

And yet no gaudy finery, 

Nor broocli, nor jewel rare, 
But hands and faces looking bright, 

And smoothly-parted hair." 

She was favored with a careful and religions education 
at the Moravian Seminary of Gracehill, near Belfast, Ire- 
land. She became, soon after leaving the Seminary, the 
wife of the Rev, John Gray, of the Presbyterian Church, 
with whom she emigrated to America. Mr. Gray accepted 
a call from the First Presbyterian Church of Easton, Pa., 
where he continued in the exercise of his ministry, nearly 
half a century, exerting a wide and happy influence, hon- 
ored in his profession (receiving the degree of D.D. from 
an American College), and closing his useful life, January 
12, 1868. His excellent wife survived him, and died, at 
Easton, Pa., November 18, 1871, in her seventy-sixth year. 

Mrs. Gray was greatly beloved as a mfe, a mother, and a 
friend. Her piety was exemplified, throughout her life, in 
a continuous course of faith and good works. She endeared 
herself greatly to her husband's congregation, and a still 
wider circle of admiring friends. She held the pen of a 
ready writer, and not unfrequently wrote for the religious 
press. The plaintive and beautiful hymn, 

" Hark to the solemn bell," etc., 

was contributed by her to the Presbyterian Collection of 
•' Psalms and Hymns " of 1843. After her decease, a vol- 
ume of her poems, entitled, " Selections from the Poetical 
Writings of Jane Lewers Gray," was " printed for private 
distribution," New York, 1872. The following are the first 
two of a poem of ten stanzas, on " Morn " : 

' ' Morn is the time to wake ; 
The eyelids to unclose, 
Spring from the arms of sleep, and break 

The fetters of repose ; — 
Walk at the dewy dawn abroad. 
And hold sweet fellowship with God. 
18 



274 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

" Morn is the time to pi-ay ; 

How lovely aud how meet, 
To send our earliest thoiights away, 

Up to the mercy-seat ! — 
Ambassadors, for us to claim 
A blessinsr in oui* Master's name." 



GREGORY I. 

550-604. 

The name of Gregory has long been given to a peculiar 
style of Clinrcli Song. The Gregorian Chant dates from 
his Pontificate, and marks a special epoch in the musical 
history of the Church. His father, Gordianus, was a sen- 
ator, and cardinal deacon, of Rome. His mother, Sylvia, 
was distinguished for her devotion to the Church. They 
were in easy circumstances. 

Gregory was born at Rome, about 550, and is repu- 
ted to have been the great-grandson of Pope Felix II. 
Having pursued the study of law, he obtained from the 
Emperor, Justin, the post of prefect of the city. After the 
death of his father, he renounced the world, and assumed 
the habit of a monk. His worldly substance he devoted 
to the construction of six monasteries in Sicily, and to the 
conversion of his own house, on the Cselium Hill, also into 
a monastery. 

He was ordained one of the seven deacons of Rome 
(581) by Pope Pelagius II., who sent him, as his nuncio, 
to the court of the Emperor, Tiberius, at Constantinople. 
On his return (584), he was appointed the Pope's Secretary. 
In 590, he completed his " Libri Moralium," or Comments 
on the book of Job, which he had begun while abroad. 
The same year, during the prevalence of the great plague, 
of which Pelagius died, he instituted the singing of pro- 
cessional litanies through the streets of the city. Chosen 
the successor of Pelagius, he accepted the Pontificate, ap- 



GREGORY I. • 275 

parently, with great reluctance. Six years later (596), he 
sent Augustine and his fellow monks as missionaries to 
Britain. 

He was passionately devoted to sacred music, and sought, 
in every possible way, to improve the mode of singing in 
the churches. He restored the purity of the Ambrosian 
Chant. He made large collections of church music, and to 
the four pure, or simple, tones of Ambrose, added four 
subordinate tones. An order of service, consisting of 
Psalms, Responses, and Masses, was introduced, and has 
been perpetuated until now. He banislied the floral song 
of the Milan school, and substituted the plain song. He 
founded, also, an " Academy of Music," which flourished 
for 300 years. The Gregorian style of music underlies the 
whole fabric of Lutheran and Anglican church melody. It 
is based on the very nature of things, and commends itself 
by its simplicity, its richness, and its devoutness. 

He was one of the best of the Popes. He adopted the 
title of "Servus servorum Dei," in rebuke of John, the 
Patriarch of Constantinople, who called himself the 
" CEcumenical Patriarch " of the Church. He was a faith- 
ful jDreacher of the GosiDel, a thorough scholar, a profound 
thinker, a genuine refonner, and had the reputation of be- 
ing a truly holy man. His life was worn out with the un- 
ceasing labors and vexatious cares and anxieties of his 
great oflice, and he died, March 12, 604. 

He wrote, in addition to his " Libri Moralium " in 35 
books : forty Homilies on Ezekiel ; " Libri Regulae Pastor- 
alis," in three parts ; four books of Dialogues ; twelve 
books of Letters; an "Exposition of the Canticles"; and 
a "Commentary on the Gospels." It is not without rea- 
son, that he is known in history, as " Gregory, the Great," 
and is regarded as " the last of the classical doctors of the 
Church." 

Ten Latin hymns are attributed to him, by Daniel, — 
" Thesaurus Hymnologicus," I. 175-183. The hymn, 

"Rex Christe, Factor omnium," etc., 
["O Christ, our King, Creator, Lord!"— Tr. Ray Palmer. J 



276 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

is in six fonr-line stanzas, and is entitled, — "In Passione 
Domini (al., In Coena Domini)." It has frequently been 
transferred into German. Luther regarded it as superior 
to all hymns, but made no version of it. Frequent ver- 
sions have, also, been made of it, in English. The well- 
known hymn, 

" Veni, Creator Spiritus," etc., 

has by Mone, and others, been ascribed to Gregory ; but 
more properly is referred to R abacus Matjeus (q. v.). 



JOSEPH GRIGG. 

1720 (?)-1768. 

The following account of Mr. Grigg is taken from Wil- 
son's "History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches 
and Meeting Houses, in London, Westminster, and South- 
wark, including the Lives of their Ministers, four Volumes ; 
London, 1810":— 

"After the removal of Mr. Gibbons, Mr. Joseph Greig 
was, for a short time, assistant to Mr. Bures, at Silver 
Street ; but, upon the death of the latter, he retired fr6m 
this service. Mr. Greig married a lady with considerable 
property, the widow of Colonel Drew. After this, he re- 
tired to St. Albans, and lived upon his estate, without any 
ministerial charge ; but he assisted his brethren occasion- 
ally, and preached most frequently for Dr. Fordyce. Mr. 
Greig died, we believe, at Walthamstow, on the 29th of Oc- 
tober, 1768. He was a man of considerable talents, pos- 
sessed of a lively genius, and had a turn for poetry. The 
late Mr. Joseph Fawcett, the pulpit orator, was his 
nephew." 

Very little further information, after considerable re- 
search, has been obtained of the particular incidents of 
Mr. Grigg's life. Dr. Belcher speaks of him as having 



JOSEPH GEIGG. 277 

been, in youth, "a laboring meclianic." Mr. Gibbons, 
afterwards the Rev. Dr. Thomas Gibbons, left Silver 
Street Church, in October, 1743 ; and Mr. Thomas Bures, 
the pastor of the church, died in October, 1747. It was, 
therefore, about four years (1743-1747) that Mr. Grigg held 
this position. Two of his hymns are dated, 1744, and 1745, 
respectively, and were written, consequently, during his 
London ministry. He was, of course, a Dissenter, as the 
Sih'er Street Church was of the Presbyterian order. 

He published (1756) a Fast Sermon, " On the Threatened 
Invasion of 1756," appending a hymn of five stanzas, exhibit- 
ing considerable poetic power. The same year, several of his 
productions appeared in Elizabeth Harrison's " Miscellanies 
on Moral and Religious Subjects in Prose and Verse." 
Nothing is heard from him after this until 1765, when he 
published, anonymously, a Tract, with the title, — "Four 
hymns on Divine Subjects, wherein the Patience and Love 
of our Divine Saviour is displayed." The same year, and 
the next, he contributed twelve hymns to the Christian'' s 
Magazine. 

In a volume of " Poems on Various Subjects, chiefly Sa- 
cred : By the late Mr. Thomas Greene, of Ware, Hertford- 
shire ; London, 1780," is found an Elegy, " On the Death 
of the Rev. Mr. G— g," written in 1768, and containing 
forty lines, commemorative of his virtues. Mr. Greene 
says : 

' ' What melancholy news is this I hear ? — 
News, that demands a tributary tear : 
The pious Gregg has bid our world adieu, 
Who long dispensed delight and profit too. 
Death has, in silence, sealed th' instructive tongue, 
That used to captivate the listen uig throng; 
No more he stands to plead a Saviour's Name, 
And these cold hearts of ours with love inflame ; 
No more he shows the path where duty lies, — 
That path of pleasure leading to the skies. 



Now he enjoys that ever-growing bliss 
Which used to move those preaching lips of his; 
Now he can sing till countless years are fled 
Without his old complaint — ' Alas I my head ! ' " 



278 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

It is probable, that the allusion in the last line discloses 
the cause of his declining a pastoral charge. Report, how- 
ever, makes him a pastor of a Presbyterian Church at Wal- 
thamstow (near London), where he died. A sixpenny tract 
was published in 1806, entitled, " Hymns [19] by the late 
Rev. Joseph Grigg, Stourbridge." This is the only intima- 
tion of his having had any connection with that village,— 
in Worcestershire. 

Mr. Daniel SedgA\ick, of London, among his Reprints of 
English Hymn-Writers and their Hymns, issued an edition 
of Grigg's " Hymns [40] on Divine Subjects," with his " Se- 
rious Poems " [17] and a " Sketch of the Author." The fa- 
miliar hymn, beginning with 

" Behold! a stranger 's at the door," 

in the original, contains eleven stanzas, of which the first 
four, the eighth, and the ninth are generally retained. In 
the Gospel Magazine, for April, 1774, appeared five stanzas 
of his popular hymn, 

"Jesus! and shall it ever be," etc., 

with the heading, — " Shame of Jesus conquered by Love. 
By a Youth of Ten Years." The original (written probabl}'' 
about 1730) contains seven stanzas. Six of these, with an 
added stanza, appeared (1787) in Rippon's Selection, where 
the hymn is ascribed to " Gregg. Altered by B. Francis." 
It is this altered form (the added stanza omitted) that is 
now in common use. 
His Fast-Day Hymn (1756) is subjoined : 

"Shake, Britain! like an aspen, shake! 
Behold thme all, all, all 's at stake ! 
Lo vice in arms ! thy potent foe : 
Not France can strike so sure a blow. 

" By more than Jonah warned, beware 1 
Yet let not Nineveh despair ; 
Melt, every heart ! stream, every eye ! 
Such penitence shall melt the sky. 



AECHER THOMPSON GURNEY. 279 

"Vice, at the sig-ht, shall faint away: 
And vix'tue, smiling, chide dismay : 
Stni France might rage our Isle to gain, 
But hell should help our foes in vain. 

"Plenty shall crown the holy land, 
And crown it for no foreign hand ; 
The British born shall die as free, 
And slaves and tyrants die to see. 

"Britain shall feel, and feeling own 
God is her shield, and God alone ; 
And heart and voice and life shall suig 
To God, the univei'sal King." 



ARCHER THOMPSOJN" GURNEY. 
1820 . 

Mr. Gueney is an Englishman of a good family. Fa- 
vored with a good education, he studied for the law, and 
was for some years a barrister of the Middle Temple. At 
an early age, he api^eared in print as a worshipper of the 
Muses. His "Faust: a Tragedy. Part II. Rendered 
from the Original German of Goethe," was published in 
1842 ; and " Love's Legend, etc.: Poems," in 1845. " King 
Charles, the First : a Dramatic Poem in Five Acts," blank- 
verse, written in true cavalier style, and much commended 
by the Ritualists, appeared in 1846. A second edition 
came out in 1852. 

His tastes at length led him to abandon the law for divin- 
ity. After a brief course of study, he was ordained, by the 
Bishop of Exeter, October 21, 1849, a deacon; and, September 
22, 1850, a priest. He was appointed one of the Bodleian 
Lecturers at Exeter. In March, 1852, he became the Curate 
of St. Mary, Crown Street, Soho Square, London. Having, 



280 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

also, served as Curate at Buckirigliam, for four years, lie 
was appointed (1858) Cliaplain of the English congrega- 
tion, Cour des Coches, Paris, where he continued for twelve 
years, resigning the post in 1870. 

His publications have been frequent. Since his ordina- 
tion to the ministry, he has sent forth : " Poems, Spring " 
(1853) ; " The Transcendentalists " (1853) ; " Songs of the 
Present " (1854) ; " Iphigenia at Delphi," a tragedy (1855) • 
"The Ode of Peace" (1855); "Songs of Early Summer" 
(1856); "Absolution, its Use and Abuse" (1858); "Ser- 
mons at Paris " (1860) ; " Gideon " (1860) ; " Restoration, 
or The Completion of the Reformation" (1861) ; "A Book 
of Praise " (1862) ; and " Reasons for Living and Dying in 
the Communion of the Church of England." In his " Book 
of Praise," appeared 147 of his own hymns. Eight of his 
hymns were included (1865) in Shipley's " Lyra Messianica." 

His hymn on " The Two Advents," of which all but the 
last stanza is subjoined, fairly exhibits his style : 

" Thanks and praise and joy and blessing 
Yield we, Lord ! for thy dear Word ; 
There the key of life possessing, 
Hear we all that pi'ophets heard, 

All that sages 
Sought with eager hope deferred, 

"They, with longuig expectation, 
Hailed the advent of their King ; 
We receive that glad salvation, 
And with joyous hearts we sing — 

' Alleluia ! 
Death in him hath lost its sting ! ' 

"But a wondrous consummation 
We await in faith suacere, 
When, with mighty acclamation, 
Radiant legions shall appear 

Roiind the presence, 
And our God descends to cheer." 



JOHN HAMPDEN GUENEY. 281 

JOHN HAMPDEN GURNEY. 

1802-1862. 

MPw GuRNEr was an eminently useful minister of the 
Churcli of England, of evangelical sympatliies. He was 
the eldest son of Sir John Gurney, one of the Barons of 
the Court of Exchequer. He was born, August 15, 1802, in 
Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, London. As might have been 
expected from his father's position, he was trained for the 
law, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He grad- 
uated, A.B., in 1824, and A.M., in 1828. 

Having devoted himself to the Church, Mr. Gurney was, 
in 1827, ordained a deacon ; and, in 1828, a priest. He first 
served as a curate to the Rev. Robert Henry Johnson, Rec- 
tor of Lutterworth, Leicestershire. In the cradle of the 
Reformation, where John Wickliffe (1324-1387) preached 
the Gospel, died and was buried, he chose, notwithstanding 
several flattering offers of settlement, to remain, making 
full proof of his ministry, seventeen years. 

At length, in 1844, he accepted the district rectory of St. 
Mary's, Marylebone, London, and held it till death, though 
offered the rectory of the mother church. Blessed with 
affluence, he employed his wealth in munificent contribir- 
tions to the cause of his Lord and Master. He took a 
prominent part in Tract, Bible, and Missionary Associa- 
tions, and show-ed a most commendable public spirit in ad- 
vancing the welfare of the people. He brought with him 
from Lutterworth, and displayed throughout his ministry 
in London, an untiring activity and energy, together with 
a glowing zeal for the promotion and extension of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom. 

He prepared, in 1851, a compilation of "Psalms and 
Hymns for Public Worship, selected for some of the 
churches in Marylebone," to which he contributed thu'teen 
hymns from his own pen, of such excellence as to cause re- 
gret that he had not more frequently exercised his poetic 



282 THE POETS OF THE CHCJECH. 

gifts. In 1853, lie publislied " Churcli Psalmody: Hints 
for the Improvement of a Collection of Hymns, published 
by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," of 
whose Committee he was an active member. His principal 
literary work w^as a First, Second, and Third Series of 
" Historical Sketches " (1852, 1855, 1858). In each of the 
years, 1845, 1856, 1857, 1858, he published a small volume 
of Sermons. "The Grand Romish Fallacy" appeared in 
1854; "Grave Thoughts," etc., in 1855; and his "Chapters 
from French History," in 1862. 

He died, greatly lamented, March 8, 1862. On the occa- 
sion of his burial, the excellency of his private character, 
and his great public services as a clergyman, were highly 
commended in a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Edward M. Goul- 
burn, the Master of Rugby School, and, since 1866, Dean 
of Norwich. " The Pastor's Last Words, being the last 
Four Sermons preached by John H. Gurney," came out 
soon after his decease. 

The following are the first four stanzas of a hymn consist- 
ing of six stanzas in the original : 

"Yes, God is good; in earth and sky, 

From ocean-depths and spreading wood, 
Ten thousand voices seem to cry, — 
' God made us all, and God is good.' 

"The sun that keeps his trackless way. 
And downward jjours his golden flood, 
Night's sparkling hosts, all seem to say, 
In accents clear, that God is good. 

" The merry hirds prolong the strain, — 
Their song with every spring renewed ; 
And balmy air, and falhng rain. 

Each softly whispers, — ' God is good.' 

"I hear it in the rushing breeze ; 

The hills that have for ages stood. 
The echoing sky and roaring seas. 
All swell the chorus, — ' God is good.' " 



JEANNE MARIE BOUVIER DE LA MOTTE GTJYON. 283 

JEANNE MARIE BOUVIER DE LA MOOTE 
GUYON. 

1648-1717. 

The poet Cowper was requested (1783) by his Mend, the 
Rev. William Bull, to put a few of Madame Guyon's " Les 
Cantiques Spirituels" " into an English dress." It served 
to amuse the poet, in his chronic melancholy, and made the 
English world acquainted with something of the glowing- 
enthusiasm of this remarkable lover of Jesus. 

Madame Guyon was born, April 18, 1648, at Montargis, 
France. Her father, Claude Bouvier, was the Lord Pro- 
prietor of La Motte Vergonville. She exhibited, from her 
earliest years, the most serious inclinations, resulting in a 
strong desire to enter a convent. But she was overruled 
by her parents, and given in marriage, March, 1664, before 
she was sixteen years of age, to Jacques Guyon, — a man 
twenty -two years her senior, and every way uncongenial. 
Her piety was tried severely in the school of affliction. 
Two of her live children died in infancy. Her beauty 
was marred by small-pox, six years after her marriage. 
On her recovery, she subjected herself to great religious 
austerities and mortifications. Her husband died, July 21, 
1676, and she devoted herself, with remarkable energy and 
discretion, to the care of her estate, and the education of 
her three children. The latter object led her to Paris in 
1680. 

Through the correspondence of M. Lacombe, a Barnabite 
priest, she was led to entertain more cheerful views of re- 
ligion, and to make an unreserved consecration of her all to 
the glory of God. Having provided for two of her children, 
she took the other with her to Geneva. At the instance 
of D'Arenthon, Bishop of Annecy, she took up her abode 
(July, 1681) in a religious house at Gex, France, near Ge- 
neva, and engaged in mission work among the Piotestants 
of that province. Her refusal to endow the house, aa ith what 



284 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

property remained to lier, provoked the Bishop, and caused 
her withdrawal, after an eight months' residence, to Tho- 
non, the monastic residence of Lacombe, who had become 
her confessor. She resided successively, at Turin, Gre- 
noble, Marseilles, Nice, Genoa, Vercelli, and then at Gre- 
noble again ; everywhere giving instruction in her pecu- 
liar views, and gaining numerous adherents. She returned 
(1686) to Paris, after five years' absence, during which she 
had written, " Les Torrents Spirituels " and " Moyen court 
et tres facile pour I'Oraison," exi^lanatory of her special 
tenets in respect to the " Prayer of Silence " and " Quiet- 
ism" in general. About this time, also, she wrote, and 
soon after published, her " Explication Mystique du Can- 
tique des Cantiques." 

At Paris, she became an object of great interest, and was 
sought out by the Duchess of Beauvilliers, the Duchess of 
Bethune, the Countess of Guiche, the Duchess of Chev- 
reuse, and others, who encouraged her in holding frequent 
gatherings for prayer and conversation. But persecution 
followed her here as well as abroad. In January, 1688, she 
was imi)risoned in the convent of the " Filles de la Visi- 
tation," Paris. At the expiration of eight months, she 
was released, at the intercession of Madame Maintenon, 
who, shortly after, with Fenelon, the renowned Archbishop 
of Cambray, became a great admirer of her doctrine, and 
gave her a retreat in a Ladies' Institution that she had es- 
tablished at St. Cyr. Here she wrote an apology for her 
"Short and Easy Method of Prayer"; but its publication 
stirred up her adversaries anew. At the suggestion of sev- 
eral of her best friends, she now submitted her books to the 
judgment of Bossuet, the eloquent bishop of Meaux. A royal 
commission, consisting of Bossuet, Bishop (afterwards Car- 
dinal) Noailles, Trouson, Superior-General of the St. Sul- 
pice Brothers, and Fenelon, w^as ordered (1694) to try her 
case. 

The major part of the commission condemned numerous 
portions of her writings ; and, in 1695, she w^as again incar- 
cerated, first in the Castle of Vincennes, then in the Con- 



JEANNE MARIE BOUVIER DE LA MOTTE GUYON. 285 

vent of tlie Ladies of St. Thomas of Yaurigard, and, in 
1698, in the Bastille. During the rigors of her imprison- 
ments, which lasted nearly seven years, and to alleviate her 
severe sufferings, she wrote, at intervals, the most of her 
"Poesies et Cantiqnes Spirituels," which were published 
after her decease. In the Convocation of the Clergy, at St. 
Germain-en-Laye, in 1700, her innocence of criminal con- 
duct, charged upon her by her enemies, was established ; 
and, in 1702, she was released from the Bastille, and per- 
mitted to retire to the home of her children at Diziers. 
The last twelve years of her life were spent in acts of piety, 
and in the cultivation of an all-absorbing divine love, at the 
city of Blois, near the residence of her children. She died 
in the full exercise of this love, and in the experience of 
unspeakable joy, June 9, 1717, in her seventieth year. 

Besides the works already specified, she wrote 20 vols, of 
"Explanations and Reflexions in respect to the Interior 
Life," on "The Books of the Old and New Testament." 
Also, a volume of "Christian and Spiritual Discourses," 
and B vols, of her " Autobiography." Four volumes of her 
"Lettres Chretiennes," were included in her "Works" 
posthumously published. 

Prof. Thomas C. Upham, D.D., of Brunswick, Me., pub- 
lished, in 2 volumes, New York, 1847, her " Life, and Re- 
ligious Opinions and Experience," in warm admiration of 
her eminent spirituality and the perfection of her " Interior 
Life." The spirit and style of her " Spiritual Songs " are 
well set forth in Cowper's translation of the 95th " Can- 
tique" of her second volume. It is entitled,— " Aspira- 
tions of the Soul after God " : 

" My Spouse! in whose presence I live, 

Sole object of all my desires, 
Who know'st what a flame I conceive, 

And canst easily double its fires; 
How pleasant is all that I meet ! 

From fear of adversity free, 
I find even sorrow made sweet. 

Because 'tis assigned me by thee. 



286 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

' ' Transported I see tliee display 

Thy riclies and glory divine ; 
I have only my life to repay, 

Take what I would gladly resign : 
Thy will is the treasure I seek, 

For thou art as faithful as strong; 
There let me, obedient and meek, 

Repose myself all the day long. 

" My spirit and faculties fail; 

Oh ! finish what Love has begun ; 
Destroy what is sinful and frail, 

And dwell in the soul thou hast won; 
Dear Theme of my wonder and praise ! 

I cry, — Who is worthy as thou ? 
I can only be silent and gaze ; 

'Tis all that is left to me now. 

* * Oh ! glory, in which I am lost, 

Too deep for the plummet of thought ! 
On an ocean of deity tossed, 

I am swallowed, I sink into nought : 
Yet, lost and absorbed as I seem, 

I chant to the praise of my King ; 
And, though overwhelmed by the theme, 

Am happy whenever I sing." 



CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN HALL. 

1816 . 

Newmai^^ Hall, the people's preacher, was born. May 
22, 1816, at Maidstone, on the Medway, Kent, England. 
His parents, John Vine Hall, and Mary Teverill, were mem- 
bers of the Independent Church under the care of the Rev. 
Edmund Jenkins. When Ne^vman was five years old, his 
father became widely known by the publication of an ex- 
ceedingly popular and useful tract, called "The Sinner's 



CHEISTOPHER NEWMAN HALL. 287 

Friend." A letter from a younger sister, at a later period, 
was tlie immediate occasion of bringing tlie son to a saving 
knowledge of the Gospel. 

He was educated at tlie grammar-school of Totteridge, 
Hertfordshire, and at Highbury College, London, gradu- 
ating, A.B., at the London University, in 1841. He ob- 
tained the Law- Scholarship of the University, and took 
the degree of LL.B., in 1856. Having accepted (1842) a 
call to the new Albion Chapel (Independent) at Hull, he 
was ordained, July 13, 1842 ; and, shortly after, married a 
daughter of William Gordon, M.D., of Hull. He entered, 
with characteristic energy, into the work of gathering souls 
into the garner of his Lord, and with remarkable success. 
While at Hull, he wrote, and. May 9, 1848, published, that 
stirring Baxterian tract, called, — " Come to Jesus," of which 
millions of copies, in about thirty different languages, have 
been circulated, resulting in the salvation of multitudes. 

On the death of his father-in-law, February, 1849, he pub- 
lished "The Christian Philosopher triumphing over Death : 
A l^Tarrative of the Closing Scenes of the Life of the late 
William Gordon, M.D., F.L.S." After a visit to the Con- 
tinent in the spring of 1853, he published (1854) "The 
Land of the Forum and the Vatican ; or. Thoughts and 
Sketches during an Easter Pilgrimage to Rome." 

In the summer of the following year (July 2, 1854), he 
succeeded the Rev. James Sherman, as pastor of Surrey 
Chapel, Blackfriars' Road, London, — widely known by the 
incumbency of the eccentric Rowland Hill. Here he la- 
bored many years with the most exemplary zeal, activity, 
and energy, as well as masterly ability, in the prosecution 
of the great work of evangelizing the London poor. He 
instituted and sustained a system of out-door, as well as 
in-door preachings, lectures, pastoral visitations, and other 
religious and benevolent agencies, that made Surrey Chapel 
a radiating centre of mighty influences for good to London 
and the whole kingdom. 

After the example of his two predecessors. Hill and 
Sherman, he prepared and published (1857) a Hymn-Book 



288 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

for Surrey Chapel, with the following dutiful Dedication 
to his revered mother, then in her seventieth year : 

" Mother! to thee, of right, this hook belongs: 

For, seated on thy knee, an infant weak, 

With lisping tongue, I learned from thee to speak 
'In psalms and hymns and sphitual songs.' 

Oft didst thou stroke my head and kiss my cheek, 
And weep for joy to hear thy child repeat 

How the good Shepherd came from heaven to seek 
His wandering lambs, and how his hands and feet 

Were pierced with nails ; while he, the sufferer meek, 
Prayed for his foes, then mounted to his throne. 
With themes like these my years have still upgrown, 

Through thy persuasive teaching, tender care, 

Thine and a loving father's life of prayer. 
The book I ofiPer thee is thus thine own." 

He prepared, also, a book of " Seventy Scripture Chants," 
for the use of his congregation. His father died, Septem- 
ber 22, 1860, and, in 1865, NewTuan published, " Hope for 
the Hopeless : An Autobiography of John Vine Hall, Au- 
thor of ' The Sinner's Friend.' " 

He was honored, in 1866, with the degree of D.D., by 
Middlebury College, Yt. ; and the same year, he was chosen 
the Chairman of th^ Congregational Union of England 
and Wales. He visited the United States in 1867, meet- 
ing with a cordial reception ; and, in 1873, he repeated the 
\^sit. 

Some years since, the ground lease of Surrey Chapel hav- 
ing expired, the congregation put up a new building on 
Westminster Bridge Road, called Christ Church, where 
Mr. Hall still ministers. The tower of the new church 
bears the name of Lincoln Tower, in recognition of the 
contributions from American friends. 

In addition to the works already named, he published 
(1857) in opposition to F. D. Maurice, a volume on " Sac- 
rifice, or Pardon and Purity through the Cross"; also, a 
volume of sermons, entitled "Homeward Bound"; " Notes 
of a Journey from Liverpool to St. Louis"; and (1871) a 



WILLIAM HAMMOND. 289 

volume of poetry, called, " Pilgrim Songs in Cloud and 
Sunshine." An ardent opposer of Intemperance, lie has 
printed several small works on " Teetotalism " ; and lias, 
also, contributed frequently to the various religious period- 
icals of the day. 



WILLIAM HAMMOND. 
1783. 

Of the early life and nativity of Mr. Hammond, almost 
nothing is left on record. He entered St. John's College, 
Cambridge, in 1735, and graduated, A.B., in 1739. In 
the Preface to his book of "Hymns," written in 1745, 
he says: "I have been in great bondage and captivity 
myself (it is now about five years since the Lord set my 
soul at liberty) and therefore I can sympathize with those 
who are in that miserable condition. The hymns of this 
kind were mostly written from my own experience." It 
was in 1740, therefore, that he came into the full experience 
of the saving grace of the Gospel, probably under the 
preaching of Whitefield, with whose connection he now 
identified himself, and under whose auspices he began to 
preach. During the next five years, he exercised his min- 
istry at Cambridge, Bristol, London, and elsewhere. 

He published, in 1744, "Medulla Ecclesiai"; reprinted in 
1779, with an Introduction, by Wm. Mason, the Author of 
"The Spiritual Treasury"; and reissued, New York, 1816, 
with the title,—" The Marrow of the Church: The Doctrines 
of Christ's Eighteousness Imputed, and Eegeneration fairly 
stated and clearly demonstrated from the Homilies, Arti- 
cles, and Liturgies of the Church of England Being 

the Substance of several Discourses delivered at Cambridge, 
Bristol, etc." In the Preface, he intimates, that once he 
19 



290 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

had been "in great doubt and concern about the Trin- 
ity." 

Tlie next year (1745) he published, at London, a vohime 
of " Psalms, Hymns, and Si^iritual Songs," containing 161 
hymns, some of them of considerable length, and much 
above the hymnology of the period. " Nothing," he says, 
" but the importunity of Christian friends, and a desire to 
edify the Church of Christ, extorted these hymns from 
me." Four highly practical Sermons are appended to the 
volume. His hymns beginning 

" Lord ! we come before thee now," 
and 

" Awake and smg the song," 

are universal favorites. 

During these early years of his ministry, he was associ- 
ated mth the Rev, John Cennick, with whom he subse- 
quently became attached to the Moravian Connection — 
"The United Brethren." Gadsby says, that "he Avrote 
his autobiography in Greek, but it was never published." 
It ought to be recovered, if possible ; as it would, doubt- 
less, sux)ply the missing links in his history. He died, at 
an advanced age, in 1783, and his remains were interred in 
the Moravian burying-ground, Chelsea, London, on the an- 
cient estate of Sir Thomas More, subsequently the Duke of 
Beaufort's. Of his later ministry, no record has been ob- 
tained. 

The stanzas that follow are from a hymn of twelve stan- 
zas, on Heb. x. 22 : 

"Now prepare your hearts to sing 
Glory to oui- God and King; 
Now a shout of triiunph raise, 
Fill the heaven with Jesus' praise. 

" Hallelujah to the Lamb ! 
All aloud his love proclaim ; 
He for sinners freely died, 
He for me was crucified. 



HENRY HAEBAUGH. 291 

*'No-w my doubts and fears are o'er, 
I distrust his grace no more : 
Clouds and storms are tied away, 
I behold the gospel-day. 

' ' Earth below and heaven above 
Wonder at his boundless love ; 
All admire his grace and power, 
Bless the Lord for evermore," 



HENRY HARBAUGH. 

1818-1867. 

This eminent scholar, poet, and divine, was of German 
descent. His great-grandfather came from Switzerland, in 
1736, and settled in Pennsylvania. His father was a resi- 
dent of Waynesborough, Pa., where, October 28, 1818, the 
son was born, and trained. His advantages of education 
were quite limited, and, as he grew up, he served on his 
father's farm until his nineteenth year, when he removed 
West, and learned the carpenter's trade. 

Desirous of obtainmg a liberal education, he taught 
school a few months in the winter, and the remainder of 
the year attended an academy. He entered Marshall Col- 
lege, Mercersburgh, Pa., in 1840, and, at the same time, 
pursued the study of theology. He came thus under the 
influence of the Rev. Dr. John W. Nevin, President of the 
College, and the originator of the " Mercersburgh System 
of Theology," which he heartily adopted. 

He entered the ministry of the German Reformed Church 
in 1843, and was ordained to the pastoral charge of the 
Church of Lewisburgh, Union Co., Pa. Here he remained 
seven years, and then (April, 1850) became the pastor of the 
First German Church of Lancaster, Pa., remaining there 
ten years. In 1860, he took charge of St. John's (German) 
Church, Lebanon, Pa., whence he was called (January 1, 



292 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

1864) to the Professorship of Theology in the Mercersburgh 
Theological Seminary. The honorary degree of D.D. was 
conferred on him (1860) by Union College, N. Y. He died, 
December 28, 1867, at Mercersburgh, Pa. 

He was a diligent and laborious student, a graceful and 
powerful writer. His contributions to The Mercersburgh 
Reiy'iew and other periodicals were frequent. In 1850, he 
edited The Guardian^ a monthly magazine, and was the 
editor of The Mercersburgh Review at the time of his de- 
cease. He 23ublished : " Heaven ; or An Earnest and Scrip- 
tural Inquiry into the Abode of the Sainted Dead " (1848) ; 
" The Heavenly Recognition ; or An Earnest and Scrij)tural 
Discussion of the Question, ' Will we know our Friends in 
Heaven ? ' " (1851) ; " The Heavenly Home ; or The Employ- 
ments and Enjoyments of the Saints in Heaven," and 
" Union with the Church " (1853) ; " The Birds of the Bi- 
ble" (1854) ; " The Life of the Rev. Michael Slatter" (1857) ; 
" The Fathers of the German Reformed Church in Europe 
and America" (1857-1858); "The True Glory of Woman, 
as Portrayed in the Beautiful Life of the Virgin Mary," 
and " Plea for the Lord's Portion of a Christian's Wealth, 
in Life by Gift, in Death by Will " (1858) ; a choice volume 
of " Poems " and " The Golden Censer " (1860) ; " Hymns 
and Chants" (1861) ; and " Christological Theology" (1864). 
He, also, contributed the "German Clerical Biography" 
to " McClintock's Cyclopsedia." 

The following brief poem on " Matins and Vespers " is 
taken from his volume of original " Poems," published in 
1860: 

" Pray in the morning' hour; — 

Grace, like the light and dew, 
Is richest on the spirit shed, 

When thoughts are fresh and new : 
The rising sun lights up the heavens 

Befoi-e he shines below ; 
So first on God, and then on earth, 

Your morning thoughts bestow. 

' ' Pray in the evening hour ; — 
Grace, like the golden light, 



SAMUEL YOUNG HAEMEE. 29^ 

That opens when the sun is set, 

Will smile upon the night : 
The light still liugei*s on the sky, 

When all is dark below; 
So last on God, and not on earth, 

Your evening thoughts bestow." 



SAMUEL YOUNG HARMER. 

1809 . 

Me. Haemer is a Methodist preacher. His father, Samuel 
Harmer, belonged to the Society of Friends ; and his moth- 
er, Margaret Young, was a Presbyterian. He was bom, De- 
cember 9, 1809, at Germantown, Pa. His educational advan- 
tages were limited to the common school. He united with 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1827, and took an active 
part, for many years, as teacher and superintendent in the 
Sunday-School of the church. Having proved his gifts as 
an exhorter, he was licensed, in 1842, as a local preacher. 
He entered the itineracy in 1847, and, in April of that year, 
was ordained a deacon, at Wilmington, Del., by Bishop 
Morris. He exercised his ministry, for several years, in and 
about Philadelphia. In April, 1855, he was ordained an 
elder by Bishop Scott. He removed to Iowa, in 1857, where 
he has laboriously and successfully labored in the ministry 
of the Gospel. 

The hjmin beginning 

" In the Christian's home in glory," 

of which he is the author, was written (1856), while he re- 
sided in Philadelphia, for a Camp-Meeting Collection, 
which the Rev. John Gladding was then compiling. Tlie 
Rev. William McDonald, of Boston, Mass., made some 
alterations in the h^min (accepted by the author), and set 
the words to the music as now generally sung. 



294 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

JOSEPH HART. 

1712-1768. 

Joseph Haet, to wliom the Cliurcli is indebted for many 
valuable hymns, was born (1712) of pious parents, in Lon- 
don, England. He " imbibed the sound doctrines of the 
Gospel from infancy," and was often seriously impressed, 
even from childhood. His education was specially good 
and liberal, enabling him to become a classical teacher. 

At the age of twenty-one, he became greatly anxious 
about his spiritual condition. He strove "to commend 
[himself] to God's favor, by amendment of life, virtuous 
resolutions, moral rectitude, and a strict attendance on 
religious ordinances. " He fasted, prayed, and wept ; but 
was often brought into bondage by fleshly lusts. Seven 
years were passed in this manner, before he obtained a 
hope of forgiveness. 

A relapse followed. Giving way to pride and self-con- 
ceit, he adopted extreme Antinomian views, and indulged 
in gross sensuality and vice. " For," he says, " having, as 
I imagined, obtained by Christ a liberty of sinning, I was 
resolved to make use of it ; and thoualit the more I could 



this abominable state, I continued, a loose backslider, an 
audacious apostate, a bold-faced rebel, for nine or ten years ; 
not only committing acts of lewdness myself, but infecting 
others with the poison of my delusions. I published sev- 
eral pieces on difl'erent subjects, chiefly translations of the 
ancient heathens, to which I preflxed Prefaces, and sub- 
Joined Notes, of a pernicious tendency." One of these 
l^ublications was a " Translation of Herodian's History of 
his Own Times" (1749). 

In 1741, his parents, on the opening of Whitefield's Tab- 
ernacle, Mooi-fields, London, became stated attendants there. 
That same year, their son, having himself become an oc- 
casional hearer of ^Vliitefield and the Wesleys, published 



JOSEPH HART. 295 

a pampMet, entitled, — " The Unreasonableness of Religion, 
being Remarks and Animadversions on tlie Rev. John Wes- 
ley's Sermon on Rom. viii. 32." Not long after, he removed 
to Sheerness, Kent. Here he exerted an intlnence so 
pernicious, by his example and teachings, that Mr. Will- 
iam Shrubsole, of the Dock Yard, and Minister of Bethel 
Chapel, after much entreaty prevailed on him to return to 
London, in order that the nuisance might thus be abated. 

At length, in 1751, in his fortieth year, he was led to see 
the enormity of his principles, and to abandon his immo- 
ralities. He now received the true doctrine of the Gospel, 
and became strictly correct in conduct. He resorted to 
daily prayer, and the reading of the Scriptures in their 
original tongues as well as in English. For five years he 
continued this course with no lively sense of divine love. 
Two years of despondency followed. All this while he was 
an attendant of the Tabernacle and Tottenham Court 
Road Chapel. A sermon on Rev. iii. 10, that he heard on 
Whit-Sunday, 1757, at the Moravian Chapel in Fetter Lane, 
brought light and grace to his soul, and put a happy end 
to his life-long perplexities. 

He now became a thorough convert, a consistent and 
happy Christian. He entered upon, and continued to the 
end to live, a new life to the glory of God. He had long 
been accustomed to write in verse. He delighted now in 
the composition of hymns and spiritual songs, expressive 
of his new experience. In the spring of 1759, he published 
119 " Hymns, etc., composed on Various Subjects, with a 
Preface, containing a Brief Account of the Author's Expe- 
rience, and the Great Things that God hath done for his 
Soul." A second edition, with a " Supplement " of 82 ad- 
ditional hymns and 7 doxologies, was published in 1762. 
The fourth edition (1765) contained, also, an "Appendix" 
of 13 hymns. 

Numerous editions of this book have been published. 
An Ameiican edition was printed (1798) by Shepard Kol- 
loch, Elizabeth Town, N. J. It has been highly extolled 
and prized by distinguished ^Dreachers. The Rev. John 



296 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Towers, his successor in the ministry, says of it, — " Herein 
the doctrines of the Gospel are illustrated so practically, 
the precepts of the word enforced so evangelically, and 
their eifects stated so experimentally, that with propriety 
it may be styled a treasury of doctrinal, practical, and ex- 
perimental divinity." It is used extensively to this day in 
some parts of England. A few of his hymns have become 
great favorites everywhere, and are found in the most of 
the modern Compilations. 

"Come, ye sinners! poor and wi*etched," etc., 

has done good service, everywhere, esj)ecially in jevivals of 
religion. The passion hymn, the eighth stanza of which 
begins with 

"Many woes had Christ endured," 

has the ring of the mediaeval Latin hymns, full of peni- 
tence, faith, and holy trust in the bleeding Lamb of Grod. 
It has twenty-three stanzas in the original. 

"Come, Holy Spirit! come," etc., 

(nine stanzas in the original) was, doubtless, suggested by 

" Veni, Sancti Spiritus," etc., 

the production of Robert II., king of France (997-1031). 

Soon after the publication of his Hymns, and because 
of it, he was sought out by the Rev. Andrew Kinsman, 
of Plymouth, and urged, though in his forty-eighth year, 
to undertake the work of the ministry. He complied, 
and preached his first sermon, in "the Old Meeting- 
House," St. John's Court, Bermondsey, London. Early 
in 1760, the old wooden meeting-house in Jewin Street, 
originally built (1672) for the celebrated William Jen- 
kyn, was procured by his friends, and a church gathered 
there, to which he ministered for the next eight years, 
crowds gathering to hear his fervid and eloquent dis- 
courses. Here God gave him many seals to his ministry. 
His last years were attended with considerable physical 



THOMAS HASTINGS. 297 

suffering. He died, in the midst of his labors and suc- 
cesses, May 24, 1768, in his fifty-sixth year. At his burial in 
Bunhill Fields, about 20,000 people are said to have been 
present. He left a wife and six children. One of his sons, 
who at his marriage had changed his name to inherit prop- 
erty, became a successful barrister, was made a baronet by 
George lY., and was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland. 
The following hymn is styled — " The Paradox": 

"How strange is the course that a Christian must steer 1 
How perplexed is thie path he must tread ! 
The hope of his happiness rises from fear, 
And his life he receives from the dead. 

" His fairest pretensions must wholly be waived, 
And his best resolutions be crossed ; 
Nor can he expect to be perfectly saved, 
Till he finds himself utterly lost. 

" When all this is done, and his heart is assm'ed 
Of the total remission of sins, 
When his pardon is signed, and his peace is procured. 
From that moment his conflict begins." 



THOMAS HASTINGS. 

1784-1872. 

The cause of Sacred Music in America is under great ob- 
ligations to the late Dr. Thomas Hastings. Few men have 
labored so long, so earnestly, so intelligently, so devoutly, 
and so successfully, for the imj^rovement of " the ser\dce of 
song " in the worship of God. To him, and the late Dr. 
Lowell Mason — "^«r nohilefratrum ! " — more than to all 
others, is to be attributed the great advance made in the 
character of this part of public worship during the last half 



298 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

century. They may properly be regarded as tlie founders 
of the prevailing psalmody of America. 

Thomas Hastings was the son of Seth Hastings, M.D., 
and was born, October 15, 1784, at Washington, Litchfield 
Co., Conn., where the first twelve years of his boyhood 
were spent. In the winter of 1796, his father, in company 
with several of his neighbors, removed to Oneida Co., N. 
Y., and located in the town of Clinton, a remote settlement, 
quite on the frontiers of civilization. Here the son became 
inured to hardship in the clearing of the forests, and the 
subjugation of the virgin soil to the plough. His opportu- 
nities of education were quite limited and remote — a daily 
walk of six miles in cold and storm and drifting snows, 
being required for two winters, in order to Academic 
schooling. Having an acute ear for music, and a corre- 
siDonding passion for the art, he began the study of the sci- 
ence " with a sixpenny gamut of four diminutive pages," 
under a not very competent teacher. He next mastered an 
old book of psalmody, and at length became the chorister 
of the village church. An elaborate treatise on music, 
bought at auction, came into his hands, and was thoroughly 
studied and apprehended. 

Having reached the age of manhood (1805), he offered 
himself as a singing-school teacher, but, because of his im- 
perfect sight (he was an alhino), fruitlessly. The follow- 
ing winter (1806-7), however, he taught a singing-school at 
Bridgewater, Oneida Co., and another at Brookfield, Herki- 
mer Co. ; and thus began the work of his life. Years passed 
on, and other openings offered. One year was given to 
business pursuits, and four years to the care of his father's 
farm. In 1816, he gave himself to the profession of music. 
A Musical Society (" the Handel and Burney ") had been 
formed in Oneida Co. Under their patronage, Mr. Hastings 
and Prof. Seth Norton compiled two pamphlet numbers of 
sacred music, which were subsequently enlarged, and, hav- 
ing been united with the " Springfield Collection," edited 
by Col. Solomon Warriner, were published (1822) as " Mu- 
sica Sacra." His "Musical Reader" was issued in 1817. 



THOMAS HASTINGS. 299 

L winter (1816-7) spent in Troy, N. Y., served to de- 
velop a remarkable fluency in public speaking, and lie be- 
came a popular Lecturer on Music. He wrote, also, for tke 
periodical press ; and, in 1822, published at Albany, IST. Y., 
"A Dissertation on Musical Taste," by wMch he became 
extensively known as a musical author. 

From Troy he removed to Albany, and became the pre- 
centor of the Rev. Dr. Chester's church. Thence, in the 
autumn of 1823, he removed to Utica, N. Y., to become the 
editor of a religious periodical. He continued to edit the 
Western Recorder from January, 1824, until the latter part 
of 1832, advocating in its columns, with marked ability, his 
views of Sacred ^Music, and taking frequent opportunities 
to lecture, by invitation, in various places, on his favorite 
theme. An Address, which he delivered before the Gen- 
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at Philadelphia, 
May 23, 1829, was published shortly after in the Biblical 
Repertory. He prepared (1830), for the American Sunday- 
School Union, " The Union Minstrel, for the Use of Sabbath 
Schools and Juvenile Classes. " The Rev. Joshua Leavitt, of 
New York, had just published " Tlie Christian Lyre, a Col- 
lection of Hymns and Tunes," which had appeared weekly 
in successive Numbers of \^q New York Evangelist (of 
which he was the editor), designed for " Prayer-Meetings, 
and Revivals of Religion." It had been received with 
great favor, and extensive patronage. To counteract what 
was thought to be the injurious tendency of this publica- 
tion in the matter of musical taste, Mr. Hastings, conjointly 
with Lowell Mason, of Boston, issued (1830) a similar se- 
rial, that was published collectively (1831) as " Spiritual 
Songs for Social Worship." 

The fame of Mr, Hastings, as a successful teacher of Sa- 
cred Music, had now become wide-spread. Several churches 
of New York City united (1832) in a request that he would 
remove to New York, and make it the centre of his opera- 
tions. He complied, and, removing thither, November, 
1832, found a wide field for his art among the churches of 
the metropolis. A year later, he became the chorister of 



300 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church. He published 
(1834) " The Mother's Hymn-Book [145 hymns] .... for 
the Use of Maternal Associations"; and, shortly after, his 
"Mother's Nursery Songs." He became the editor (1836) 
of a periodical called The Musical Magazine, from the 24 
Numbers of which, he compiled (1837) his " Musical Miscel- 
lany." "The Christian Psalmist," a hymn-book contain- 
ing, in addition to Watts' Psalms, 643 hymns from Watts 
and others, was compiled, and published (1836), by the Rev. 
William Patton, D.D.,of New York, and himself, — great 
liberties having been taken with the originals. 

He prepared and published (1837) " The Manhattan Col- 
lection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes and Anthems, .... 
under the special Patronage of the New York Academy of 
Sacred Music," of which he was one of the most active and 
influential members. Three years later (1840), under the 
same Patronage, he issued " The Sacred Lyre." Both of 
these works were received with much favor. To these he now 
added " The New York Academy Collection of Anthems." 
In 1842, he edited, for the American Tract Society, a vol- 
ume of " Sacred Songs for Family and Social Worship," 
containing 183 Tunes ; and, subsequently, their " Songs of 
Zion." 

With the late William B. Bradbury, a much younger 
man, and an ardent lover of sacred song, he united in the 
compilation and publication of " The Psalmodist " (1844), 
" The New York Choralist " (1847), " The Mendelssohn Col- 
lection " (1849), and " The Psalmista " (1851). These Col- 
lections met with a large patronage. 

He now gathered together the hymns that during tlie 
previous forty years he had composed, many of them to 
meet special wants, either of occasions or tunes, and pub- 
lished them (1850) in a volume, entitled, " Devotional Hymns 
[199] and Religious Poems." One of the latter contains 
nearly 1,000 lines. 

He edited (1852), " The Presbyterian Psalmodist " (a collec- 
tion of about 500 tunes) and the " Juvenile Psalmodist," for 
the Presbyterian Board of Publication. He, also, assisted 



THOMAS HASTINGS. 301 

Messrs. Bradbury and Root, in the compilation (1853) of 
"Tlie Shawm, a Library of Church Music." In 1854, he 
published the entertaining " History of Forty Choirs," with 
the most of which he had been previously connected. He 
also published a Sunday-School Hymn and Tune Book. 
He united with his son, the Rev. Thomas S. Hastings, D.D., 
in the compilation and publication (1858) of " Church Melo- 
dies, a Collection of [871] Psalms and Hymns with appro- 
priate Music." Finally, he gathered together such of his 
hymn tunes and other musical compositions as he desii'ed 
to preserve, gave them a careful and thorough revision, and 
then (1860) issued them in a volume, entitled, " Hastings's 
Church Music," 235 pieces — not more than half, probably, 
of what he had composed. Among his publications were a 
volume on " Sacred Praise," and another on " Prayer." He 
was the author of about 600 hymns. 

Dr. Hastings continued, for forty years, to reside in New 
York, contributing constantly to the periodical press. He 
was greatly beloved and universally honored as a noble 
Christian man, as well as an accomplished musician. He 
died, at his home, May 15, 1872, in his eighty-eighth year. 

The following is the 118th of his " Hymns," caUed " The 
Mount of Privilege ": 

" My soul upon the mount would stand, 
Once more to view the promised land, 

The land of thy abode, 
Where trees with fruit immortal grow, 
And rivers of salvation flow 
Forth from the throne of God. 

" Oh ! that my soul were filled with thee, 
With visions of thy majesty 

And condescending love ; 
Then would my cheerful spirit. Lord I 
Be ready, at thy heavenly word, 

To take its flight above," 



302 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

WILLIAM HENRY HAVERGAL. 

1793-1870. 

William Heistrt Havergal, the eminent musician of 
the Church, was the son of William Havergal, of High 
Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, where he was born, 
January 18, 1793. He Avas fitted for the University, at the 
Merchant Taylors' Grammar- School, London, He entered 
St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, in 1811, graduating, B.A., in 
1815, and, M.A., 1819. He was ordained a deacon in 1816, 
and a priest in 1817. He held, for several years, two cu- 
racies successively, in Gloucestershire. 

He was x^referred (1829) to the Rectorship of Astley, on 
the Severn, Worcestershire ; and (1842) to the Rectorship 
of St. Nicholas in the city of Worcester. He was made 
(1845) Honorary Canon of Worcester Cathedral. Impaired 
health constrained him, in 1860, to resign the living of St. 
Nicholas, and to accept the Perpetual Curacy of Shareshill. 

Throughout his ministry he cultivated the Art and Sci- 
ence of Music, in which he became a great proficient. He 
composed both music and poetry with remarkable facility. 
Dr. Lowell Mason, of Boston, an eminent musical critic, 
who visited Worcester, in January, 1852, says of him : 
"He is well known by numerous sacred songs, x)ublished 
with piano-forte accompaniment. But it is metrical psalm- 
ody and the chant in which he is most interested, and in 
which he has produced some very fine specimens. He only 
devotes odds and ends of time to music, and never writes 
music when he is able to write sermons ; but it has been 
when weary with the labors of the day, or when travelling, 
that he has composed most of his popular and excellent 
tunes. " He describes the musical service in Mr. Ha vergal's 
church as excellent in all particulars, and far in advance 
of anything that he heard in England. 

Mr. Havergal competed successfully, in 1836, and again 



WILLIAM HENRY HAVERGAL. 303 

composition of a clinrcli service of music, or antliem. In 
the Prize Antliem for 1841 (No. XL of the Gresham Com- 
positions), he introduced " the Old Hundredth Tune," with 
marked effect. He published (1844) an edition of " Ravens- 
croft' s Psalter," of 1611 ; and (1847) his " Old Church Psalm- 
ody,"—" probably," says Bishop Wain\\Tight, of New York, 
" the best book of the kind which has appeared since the days 
of Ravenscroft." 

Two volumes of his '• Sermons on Historical Subjects from 
the Old and New Testaments " appeared in 1853 ; " A His- 
tory of the Old Hundredth Psalm Tune with Specimens," 
in 1854, of which a New York edition was issued the same 
year; " Memorial Notices of J. Davies," in 1858; "A Hun- 
dred Psalm and Hymn Tunes," original, in 1859; and 
"Charles and Josiah, or Friendly Conversations between 
a Churchman and a Quaker," in 1862. He published alto- 
gether about fifty musical works, besides occasional ser- 
mons and contributions to musical and religious periodi- 
cals. He wrote, also, about a hundred hymns, some of 
which were included in the Rev. William Cams Wilson's 
Collection of Hymns (1838), and the most of them in the 
"Worcester Diocesan Hymn Book." 

Mr. Havergal was the father of Miss Frances Ridley Hav- 
ergal, whose numerous poetical and prose works have 
been received with such marked favor. He died, at Leam- 
ington, April 19, 1870, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. 
The following hymn was composed (1859) " for a special 
prayer-meeting for missionary laborers, held in his school- 



room 



Remember, Lord ! thy word of old, 
The promised flood of gi-ace ; 

When earth thy blessmg shall behold, 
As streams in every place. 



The barren wild, and thirsty soil. 

Thy Spirit, Lord ! await ; 
Oh ! pour it forth, and crown our toil 

In every heathen gate. 



804 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Where thorns and briers clothe the ground, 
And withering idols reign, 
There let thy Sphit's dew abound, 
And Eden bloom again. 

" O Holy Ghost! on every heart, 
In every land, descend ; 
Thy fertilizing gifts impart. 
And bring a glorious end." 



THOMAS HAWEIS. 

1732-1820. 

The Rev. Thomas Haweis, LL.B., M.D., was born 
(17B2) at Truro, Cornwall, England, of an ancient and honor- 
able family. His mother, Mrs. Bridgeman [Willyams] 
Haweis, was the granddaughter of Hester, the eldest sister 
of the last Baron Sandys, whose husband. Col. Humphrey 
IN'oye, was the Attorney General of King Charles I. The 
family were thorough Jacobites. 

Young Haweis was favored with abundant educational 
advantages ; but, being of a gay and jovial disiDOsition, he 
consorted much with an older scholar, afterwards well 
known as the comic actor, Samuel Foote. In his four- 
teenth year (1746) he was brought under the influence of 
the Rev. Samuel Walker, who at that time became the Cu- 
rate of St. Mary's Church, Truro ; and, in the second year of 
his curacy, adox)ted the views, and became an earnest advo- 
cate, of the evangelical party in the Church of England. 
Through the faithful preaching of Mr. Walker, young Ha- 
weis became a hapi^y subject of divine grace. 

He had chosen, on leaving school, the medical profession, 
and had been apprenticed to a gentleman in Truro, with 
whom he remained the required time. He had now devel- 
oped such oratorical gifts, accompanied with such true re- 



THOMAS HAWEIS. 305 

ligious ardor, tliat, by Mr. Walker's advice and encourage- 
ment, lie abandoned medicine for theology. The consent 
of his family having been secured, he entered the Univer- 
sity of Oxford as a student and gentleman-commoner of 
Christ Church College, removing afterwards to Magdalen 
Hall. He associated with a godly band of students, in 
meetings for prayer and study of the Scriptures, and in 
evangelical efforts for the conversion of their young com- 
panions in study. He maintained, through his whole col- 
lege course, the strictest habits of piety and devotion. 

Shortly after his graduation, he was appointed (1757) the 
Curate of the Church of St. Mary :Magdalen, Oxford, and 
ordained by Dr. Thomas Seeker, then Bishop of Oxford. 
He soon attracted, by the fervor of his preaching, large and 
admiring audiences, particularly of collegians, and many 
were savingly profited by his ministrations. On the other 
hand, he was reproached and defamed as a Methodist, and 
at length, after several years of service, deprived of his cu- 
racy, by the Rev. Dr. John Hume, who had succeeded Dr. 
Seeker, as Bishop of Oxford. For a short time afterwards, 
Dr. Haweis became an assistant to the Rev. Martin :Madan, 
then in charge of the Lock Hospital Chapel, London. In 
1763, he became the Rector of All Saints' Church, Aldwin- 
kle, Northamptonshire. The circumstances of the case were 
quite remarkable. 

Mr. Kimpton, the previous incumbent, had, by pecuniary 
embarrassments, become the inmate of a prison. To pre- 
vent the living from lapsing into the hands of the bishop, 
he w-as, at the solicitation of Mr. Madan, induced to pre- 
sent it to Dr. Haweis, nothing having been said or inti- 
mated about the purchase of the advowson, or any pecu- 
niary compensation. Shortly after, Mr. Kimpton received 
an offer of a thousand guineas for the advowson, and im- 
mediately demanded of Dr. Haweis either to relinquish 
the presentation, or to render an equivalent compensation. 
Under the advice of distinguished friends, the demand was 
declined. A bitter pamphlet war followed, and much scan- 
dal ensued. Lady Huntingdon, at length, to put an end to 
20 



306 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

it, sent Mr. Kimpton £1,000, and purchased the perpetual 
advowson of the living. Dr. Haweis, it was admitted, had 
acted in good faith and honor, in the whole unhappy affair. 

His ministry was attended by the happiest results. The 
people were attracted to his church from all the country 
round about. Many of the most profligate characters were 
reclaimed, and large accessions were made to the number of 
communicants. He retained the position from the year 
1763, to the end of his long life, honored, faithful, and 
highly useful. Lady Huntingdon appointed him one of 
her chaplains, and he ministered frequently in her chapels. 
" By birth, education, and habit, a gentleman, his society 
was courted by the first circles." By the suavity of his 
disj)Osition, and the urbanity of his manners, he made him- 
self acceptable and attractive among all classes. He was 
exceedingly catholic in his i^rinciples, and co-operated 
frequently with evangelical Dissenters, in their benevolent 
schemes for the sjDread of the Gospel. He united with 
them (1795) in the formation of the London Missionary 
Society, of which he continued a most earnest promoter to 
the day of his death. He was appointed, by the will of 
Lady Huntingdon, her executor and one of her Trusted ; 
and he faithfully administered the trust, involving the man- 
agement of her numerous chapels throughout the kingdom. 
He took the degree of LL.B. in 1772, at Cambridge Univer- 
sity. 

His writings are more practical and useful than profound 
and erudite. He published (1762) " Evangelical Principles 
and Practice," a volume of 14 sermons. While at Oxford, 
he had delivered a course of Catechetical Lectures, on suc- 
cessive Sunday afternoons, a part of which he published 
(1764), as " The Communicant's Spiritual Companion ; or, 
An Evangelical Preparation for the Lord's Supper." It 
has been frequently republished both in Great Britain and 
America. This was followed, in 1765, by his " Evangelical 
Expositor ; or, A Commentary on the Holy Bible : Wherein 
the Sacred Text is inserted at Large, the Sense explained, 
and ithe more difficult Passages elucidated — -with Practical 



THOMAS HAWEIS. 307 

Observations," etc. ; in 1775, by " An Improvement of tlie 
Clmrcli CatecLism'-; and in 1791, by "Essays on Christian- 
ity," and "A Short Account of tlie Last Days of Lady 
Huntingdon." 

Shortly after the decease of the excellent Countess, he 
compiled, and published (1792), his " Carmina Christo ; or, 
Hymns to the Saviour : Designed for the Use and Comfort 
of those who worship the Lamb that was Slain." It con- 
tained 141 original hymns, and was printed in the square 
form peculiar to Lady Huntingdon's Collection, so as to 
form a Supplement to it. A seventh Edition, " very con- 
siderably enlarged," containing 256 hymns, was published 
in 1808. A very few only, less than a score, have become 
at all popular, or acceptable among the churches. 

He ventured (1795), with inadequate qualifications, on 
" A Translation of the New Testament from the Greek." 
" A Life of the Rev. W. Romaine " was published in 1797. 
His " Letters and Particulars relating to the Life of John 
Newi^on," appeared in 1799. " An Impartial and Succinct 
History of the Rise, Declension and Revival of the Church 
of Christ, from the Birth of our Saviour to the Present 
Time," written in the interests of the London Missionary 
Society, followed in 1800. This was severely criticised by 
Dean Isaac Milner, of Cambridge, and an unpleasant pam- 
phlet controversy followed. His latest work (1812) was 
entitled, "A View of the Present State of Evangelical 
Religion throughout the World." 

Several years before his decease, having become some- 
what infirm by reason of his advanced age. Dr. Haweis 
retired from the active duties of his charge, and made his 
home at Bath, where, full of peace and comfort, he died, 
February 11, 1820, in his eighty-ninth year. His piety and 
poetry are both exemplified in the following hymn, entitled 
"Mourning after Christ": 

" If Jesixs withholds the sweet sense of his grace, 
And, hiding in darkness, conceals his bright face, 
There is not a spot, in the regions of space. 
Can cheer me, removed from his sight : 



308 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

But when, o'er the mountams of dark unbelief, 
My Lord, as the roe, bounds to bfing me relief, 
How quickly are fled all my sorrows and grief ! 
His presence is joy and delight. 

' ' Ah ! come then, dear Lord ! to thy mourner return ; 
Laid low at thy footstool, my soul do not spurn, 
But speak the kind word, and my spirit shall burn- 

A flame, kindled up from thine own : 
Enchcle me round with tlie arms of thy love, 
Thy truth and thy faithfulness ever to prove, 
Till safe I am lodged in thy bosom above. 

With thee to sit down on the throne." 



GEOEGE HEATH. 

George Heath was a Unitarian minister. He was edu- 
cated at the Dissenting Academy in Exeter, England, of 
which the Rev. IMicaiah Towgood was, at the time, one of 
the principal Tutors. Mr. Heath became (1770) the pastor 
of the Presbyterian Church of Honiton, in Devonshire. 
He iDroved unworthy of his office, and ultimately lost his 
position by bad conduct. He died in 1822. 

In 1784, he published his "Hymns and Poetic Essays, 
Sacred to the Worship of the Deity, to which is added 
Elegies." The familiar hymn, 

" My soul! be on thy guard," etc., 

is from this Collection. In 1797, he also published, "A 
History of Bristol." 



REGINALD HEBER. 

1783-1826. 

The poetic beauty of Bishop Heber's hymns is univer- 
sally conceded. A few of them occupy a high rank a^ 



EEaiNALD HEBER. 309 

sacred lyrics. His "Missionary Hymn" is found in all 
modern Collections, and is sung all over the Cliristian world 
where the English language is used. 

Reginald Heber bore his father's name, and partook of 
his spirit and principles. The father was the son of Thomas 
Heber and Elizabeth Atherton, and inherited a handsome 
estate, including the patronage of the rectories of Marton 
in Yorkshire, and Hodnet in Shropshire. He resided in 
the parish of Malpas, Cheshire, of which he was co-rector 
with Dr. Townson. His first wife, Mary Baylie, was the 
mother of Richard Heber, who inherited, as the eldest son, 
the family estates, and was noted as a bibliomaniac, the 
sale of whose library of 150,000 volumes, in 1834, occupied 
216 days. His second wife, Mary, the daughter of the Rev. 
Cuthbert Allanson, D.D., was the mother of Reginald, 
Thomas, and Mary. The father was a graduate of Braze- 
nose College, Oxford, and the author of several poems. 
The son, Reginald, was born, Ai)ril 21, 1783, in the Malpas 
Rectory. 

Young Reginald had every advantage in securing the 
best possible education. His father was his first instructor. 
At seven years, he versified, in English, Pha^drus, the Latin 
fabulist. At eight, he was sent to Dr. Kent's grammar- 
school, in Whitchurch ; and at thirteen, to the Rev. Mr. 
Bristow's select school at Neasdon. Here he contracted a 
life-long friendship for his classmate, the philanthropical 
John Thornton. Four years (1800) later he entered Braze- 
nose College, Oxford, his father's Alma Mater, of which his 
brother, Richard, was at the time a Fellow. 

His college course was highly honorable. In his first 
year, he gained the Chancellor's prize for the best Latin 
verse, by his " Carmen Seculare." He took (1803), also, a 
special prize for the best English verse, by his " Palestine," 
which was received with great applause, and highly com- 
mended on its publication. At his graduation, he gained, 
also, by his " Sense of Honor," the University Bachelor's 
prize for the best English prose essay. He was chosen, 
at the same time, a Fellow of All Souls College. 



310 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

In 1804, his father died, and the family removed to Hod 
net. The next year, he accompanied his friend Thorntor 
on a Continental tonr, retnrning home in September, 1806. 
His brother, Richard, now presented him with the living 
of Hodnet, and he was ordained early in 1807. A busy and 
successful ministry followed. In April, 1809, he married 
Amelia, the youngest daughter of Dean William D. Ship- 
ley, and granddaughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph. The 
brothers Hare were cousins of Mrs. Heber ; and Stoke, the 
parental home of Mrs, Augustus William Hare, is but two 
miles from Hodnet. In " The Memorials of a Quiet Life," 
vol. i., chap. 2, an interesting account is given of life at 
Hodnet Rectory. 

In February, 1809, he published " Europe : Lines on the 
Present War." The same month he wrote to his friend 
Thornton, "My Psalm-singing continues bad. Can you 
tell me where I can purchase Cowper's ' Olney Hymns,' 
with the music, and in a smaller size without the music to 
put in the seats? Some of them I admire much." It was 
thus that Heber was led into the composition of hymns, 
and the preparation of a hymn-book, — a design that was 
postponed by advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Some of his hymns were contributed to The Christian Ob- 
server^ in 1811 and 1812. 

A new edition of his Poems, with Translations of Pindar 
and several occasional pieces, was issued in 1812. Two 
years later, he was appointed, by the Heads of Colleges at 
Oxford, to deliver the Course of Eight Divinity Lecture 
S::^rmons, on the Bami3ton Foundation. The Lectures were 
delivered, in the spring of 1815, at St. Mary's, Oxford, and 
published (1816) with the title, " The Personality and Office 
of the Christian Comforter Asserted and Explained." The 
book was somewhat severely criticised by The British Critic 
and The Christian Ohsermr. 

The death of his only child, at the age of six months, in 
December, 1818, gave occasion to the hymn beginning with 

" Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee." 
A Royal Proclamation (February, 1819) called for contri- 



EEGINALD HEBER. 311 

butions, in all the cliurclies and chapels of the Idngdoni, for 
" The Society for Propagating the Gospel." The Dean of 
St. Asaph (the father of Mrs. Heber) appointed the last 
Sunday in May (30th), Whit-Sunday, for a Collection at the 
parish church of Wrexham, of which he was the Vicar. 
Heber had, in 1817, been appointed a prebend of St. Asaph, 
and was to preach, on the evening of the same Sunday, the 
first of a course of Sunday evening Lectures in the church 
of Wrexham. The two divines were at table with a few 
friends, the evening previous, at the vicarage, when the 
Dean, well aware of the poetic abilities of his son-in-law, 
bade him write " something for them to sing in the morn- 
ing," in connection with the Dean's missionary sermon. 
Heber obeyed, and, retiring to another part of the room, 
presently produced, and read to the company, a hymn of 
four stanzas, beginning with 

" From Greenland's icy mountains." 

The next morning it was sung for the first time to the old 
ballad tune, " 'Twas when the seas were roaring " (so says 
tradition), in the beautiful church of Wrexham. The col- 
lection amounted to £34. This one hymn has done more 
to immortalize the name of Heber than anything else from 
his pen. 

In a letter, written a fortnight later, he says : " I have 
been for some time engaged in correcting, collecting, 
and arranging all my hymns, which, now that I have got 
them together, I begin to have some high church scruples 
against using in public." JSTotwithstanding these scru- 
ples, he continued his compilation during the next three 
years, prevailing on his gifted friend, the Rev. Henry Hart 
Milman, to contribute to it several admirable hymns. He 
now presented a masterly, but inelfectual, plea to the Bishop 
of London for an ecclesiastical approval of his design. It 
was not, therefore, until after his decease that the book was 
published (1827), by his widow, with the title, "Hymns 
Written and Adapted to the Weekly Service of the Year." 

In 1822, he edited " The Whole Works of Jeremy Tay- 



312 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

lor," to wliicli lie prefixed "A Life of the Author." Fol 
several previous years, he had been a contributor to the 
London Quarterly Bemew, and a writer of fugitive poems 
and songs. He obtained (April, 1822) the Preachership of 
Lincoln's Inn, London, calling him to the city for about 
three months in the year, and adding about £600 to his an- 
nual income. 

He was appointed (January, 1823) Bishop of Calcutta, a 
preferment urged npon him but declined the year before, 
on account of his wife and only child, but now accepted as 
a divine call to the missionary work. In February, he re- 
ceived the degree of D.D. from the University of Oxford ; 
June 1, he was consecrated, by the Archbishop, at Lambeth, 
and, June 18, he sailed for India, arriving in October. His 
ministry, as a colonial bishop, was eminently successful, 
and won for him an honorable fame. On one of his exten- 
sive visitations, in the very midst of life and health, he died 
of apoplexy, occasioned by a cold bath, April 3, 1826, at 
Trichinopoly, having nearly completed the forty-thii'd year 
of his age. 

His " Journey through India," in two large volumes, was 
IDublished in 1828, and has frequently been republished. 
" The Life of Reginald Heber, D.D., Lord Bishop of Cal- 
cutta, by his Widow," appeared in 1830 ; followed, in 1837, 
by his " Parish Sermons," in three volumes. 

An eminent physician of Calcutta, intimately acquainted 
with him, gave it as his opinion that, at the best, owing to 
organic disease, he could have lived but for a few years, 
and that " he was cut off by a sudden and merciful stroke, 
.... in the meridian of his reputation and Christian util- 
ity, leaving behind him no recollection but of his amiable 
manner, his sweetness of temper, his goodness of heart, his 
universal charity, his splendid and various talents, and all 
his deep devotion to the duties of his sacred calling." 

Tlie three hymns, beginning with 

" Hosanna to the living Lord ! " 

" The Lord will come, the earth shall quake," 

" Brightest and best of the sons of the morning ! " 



OTTIWELL HEGINBOTHOM. 313 

were contributed, with iive others, to Tlie Christian Ob- 
serxer, and published in the October and November Num- 
bers for 1811, witli a preliminary statement (signed " D. R.," 
the finals of his name), in which he says of them, that they 
are part of a series " intended for the use of his own con- 
gregation ; [that] no fulsome or indecorous language has 
been knowingly adopted ; no erotic addresses to Him whom 
no unclean lip can approach ; no allegory ill-understood, 
and worse applied. " Three other hymns were contributed 
to The Christian Ol>sermr in 1812. Fifty-nine hymns are 
ascribed to his authorship, a few only of which have become 
extensively popular. His " Mariners' H;>^iin " was written 
for the " Fourth Sunday after Epiphany," and is here given 
as a specimen of his style : 

"When through the torn sail the wild tempest is streaming', 
When o'er the dark wave the red hghtning is gleaming, 
Nor hope lends a ray the poor seaman to cherish, 
We fly to oiu- Maker, — ' Help, Lord ! or we perish ! ' 

"0 Jesus ! once tossed on the breast of the billow, 
Aroused by the shriek of despair from thy pillow. 
Now, seated in glory, the mariner cherish. 
Who cries, in his danger, — ' Help, Lord ! or we perish ! ' 

" And, Oh ! when the whirlwmd of passion is raging, 
When hell in our heart his wild warfare is wagmg, 
Arise in thy strength thy redeemed to cherish. 
Rebuke the destroyer, — ' Help, Lord ! or we perish ! ' " 



OTTIWELL HEGINBOTHOM. 

1744-1768. 

This youthful poet is to be numbered among the early- 
called. Scarcely had he begun to preach the Gospel that 
he greatly loved, ere he was taken to his reward. Tyerman, 
in his " Life and Times of the Rev. John AVesley " (II. 188), 



314 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

speaks of an Ottiwell Higginbotham, a man of considerable 
property, who lived at Marf»le, near Stockport, in 1754. He 
was numbered Avith the followers of Wesley, and was, in 
all probability, the father of the young preacher. 

The hymnist was born in 1744, and, at an early age, be- 
came a student at Daventry. Here he enjoyed the instruc- 
tions of the Rev. Dr. Caleb Ash worth, a man of great abil- 
ities and piety. In his nineteenth year, he was invited to 
preach as a candidate at Sudbury, Suffolk ; and subse- 
quently he was chosen their pastor by a divided vote. His 
ordination was deferred with the vain hope of conciliating 
the minority, and eventually occurred, November 20, 1765. 
The opposition withdrew, organized a new church, and built 
a new house of worship. The sensitive constitution of the 
young pastor was fatally affected by these contentions. 
His health declined, and he fell (1768) a victim to consump- 
tion, having lived scarcely twenty-four years. 

His liT^Tuns, though not of the highest order, are very 
pleasing, and well adapted for congregational worship. 
The themes, in several cases, appear to have been sug- 
gested by some of Dr. Watts' hymns. An edition of 25 
" Hymns by the late Rev. Ottiwell Heginbothom, of Sud- 
bury, Suffolk," was privately i)rinted in 1799. Some of 
them had previously appeared in the first volume of The 
Protestant Dissenters' Magazine, for 1794. The follow- 
ing are the first four of eight stanzas on " the Country, in 
the Spring," written at " Daventry, April 19, 1761, when the 
author was a student in the Academy at that Place," in his 
seventeenth year : 

" While Nature's charms arise in grand array, 
And vernal beauties deck the smUing year, 
Fair Caelia wisely takes the rural way, 

Where new delights in various dress appear. 

" In the sweet groves, and the delicious vales, 
Her richest blessings liberal IS) ature hides ; 
There the cool rivulets, and the halmy gales, 
And virtue there with solitude resides. 



FELICIA DOEOTHEA [BROWNE] HEMANS. 315 

" Not there ambition dwells, nor haughty power, 
Nor flattering fortune, treacherously kind ; 
True pleasure grows; nor fades the lovely flower; 
For virtue cheers the self -possessing mind. 

" From field to field, with fresh delight, we pass, 
Aiid pure affections raise the sacred flame ; 
The wholesome herbage, and the pearly grass, 
Exalt the mind and tell the Former's name." 



FELICIA DOROTHEA [BROWNE] HEMANS. 

1794-1835. 

Mr. Browne, tlie father of Mrs. Hemans, the gifted po- 
etess, was a Liverpool merchant of Irish birth, and of some 
prominence. Her mother, Miss Wagner, was the daughter 
of the Imperial and Tuscan Consul, at Liverpool, — a gen- 
tleman of German and Italian descent. Seven children 
were the fruit of the marriage, of whom Felicia was the 
fifth. She was born, September 25, 1793, at Liverpool, 
England. In her seventh year, Mr. Browne, in conse- 
quence of commercial reverses incident to that revolution- 
ary period, removed to Gwrych, near Abergele, North 
Wales. Here, for nine years, in a secluded vale, shut in 
by a picturesque mountain range, but in full view of the 
" solemn sea," and within sound of its " far-distant mur- 
murs," in the midst of wild and romantic scenery, and the 
charms of cultivated nature, with the ample resources of a 
well-selected library, the fair girl grew to womanhood. 

From her childhood, she was trained almost wholly by 
her godly mother, a lady of superior talents and education. 
Her development in knowledge and varied accomplish- 
ments was early and rapid. Her fondness for poetry was 
a perfect passion. At six years of age, she had devoured 
Shakespeare's plays ; and, as she advanced in years, she 



316 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

reveled in the glowing imagery of the poets of the pre- 
vious age. At eleven, she spent a winter with her parents 
in London, and repeated the visit, for the last time, the fol- 
lowing winter. She preferred her own "green land of 
Wales," to all the pomps and gaieties of the town. Her 
time, in the city, was well improved, in forming an ac- 
quaintance with the best works of art. 

She had begun, as early as her eighth year, to express 
herself in verse ; and, in her fifteenth year, she ventured 
to put the fruits of her early musings to press, with the 
title, — "Early Blossoms of Spring : Poems written between 
the Age of Eight and Fifteen Years." One of her brothers 
was serving in the army with Sir John Moore, in Spain ; 
giving occasion to her "Engla,nd and Spain ; or Valor and 
Patriotism" (1808). At this period, she is said to have 
been " a lovely girl, with golden ringlets shading a fair 
face of radiant and changeful expression, — a dream of de- 
light, a vision of beauty, a creature all poetry, romance, 
and enthusiasm." Captain Hemans, of the King's Own 
(4tli) Regiment, attached also to the army in Spain, was, at 
this juncture, introduced, and won her affections, previous 
to his embarkation for Spain, where he remained for three 
years. 

The next year (1809), her father removed to Bronwylfa, 
near St. Asaph. Having already acquired the French and 
Italian, she now pursued the study of the Spanish, Portu- 
guese, and German languages. Drawing and music were, 
also, studied and practised with delight. A visit to Con- 
way and its ivy-mantled Castle, served further to cultivate 
and inspke her imagination. The blind harper of Conway 
deeiDly interested her, and occasioned the following strains : 

" Minstrel ! whose gifted hand can bring 
Life, rapture, soul from every string, 
And wake, like bards of former time, 
The spirit of the harp sublime, — 
Oh ! still prolong the varying strain, 
Oh ! touch th' enchanted chords again. 
Thine is the charm, suspending care, 



FELICIA DOROTHEA [BROWNEJ HEMANS. 317 

The heavenly swell, the dying close, 
The cadence melting into air, 

That luUs each passion to repose ; 
While transport, lost m silence near, 
Breathes aU her language in a tear." 

Ill her nineteentli year, slie published "The Domestic 
Affections, and other Poems"; and the same year was 
married to Captain Hemans. The first year of her married 
life was spent at Daventry, Northamptonshire, a flat coun- 
trv, which she gladly exchanged, the following year, for the 
hill-country of Flintshire,— returning soon after to Bron- 
wylfa, with her hnsband and first-born son. Living here 
with her mother (her father having entered into business 
at Quebec in America), she found time for study, as well as 
the care of her increasing household. She now published 
(1816), " The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy," 
and (1817) "Modern Greece" and "Tales and Historic 

Scenes." . 

Her marriage was, to say the least, a misfortune. Her 
husband was not worthy of her. His health began to de- 
cline, and he found it convenient to avail himself of the 
milder climate of Rome, leaving his wife and five sons at 
home. He never returned. They corresponded regularly, 
but never met again. „, , n 

She now devoted herself to the training of her boys, and 
the pursuit of literature. " Translations from Camoens and 
other Poets " appeared in 1818. She obtained the prize of 
fifty pounds offered for the best Poem on " The Meeting of 
Wallace and Bruce on the Banks of the Carron," though a 
host of others competed for it. This, and her " Stanzas on 
the Death of the Princess Charlotte," were printed m 
Blackioood?s Magazine, the latter, April, 1818, and the 
former, September, 1819. 

Encouraged by good old Dr. Luxmore, Bishop ot St. 
Asaph, with whom and his family she had long been on 
terms of endearing intimacy, she wrote, and published m 
1820, her beautiful poem, " Tlie Sceptic." The same year, 
to her great delight and advantage, she made the acquaint- 



318 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ance of Reginald Ileber, whose father-in-law, Dean Ship- 
ley, resided at Bodryddan, in her immediate neighborhood, 
and had, for years, shown her much genuine courtesy and 
kindness. "I am more delighted with Mr. Heber," she 
says, " than I can possibly tell you ; his conversation is 
quite rich with anecdote, and every subject on which he 
speaks had been, you would imagine, the sole study of his 
life." She was then writing a poem on "Superstition and 
Revelation," which, as far as written, she submitted to He- 
ber's judgment. It was left in a fragmentary state at her 
death. 

She contended successfully, in 1821, for tlcie jirize oflPered, 
by the Royal Society of Literature, for the best poem on 
" Dartmoor." She wrote, in 1823, " The Vespers of Paler- 
mo," a Tragedy, the performance of which at Covent Gar- 
den, in December, proved a failure ; but at Edinburgh, in 
the following April, a great success, bringing her into cor- 
respondence with Sir Walter Scott, who wrote for it an epi- 
logue. " The Voice of Spring " and " The Siege of Valen- 
cia," were also ^\Titten in 1823. She now became a con- 
tributor to Campbell's JVew Montlily Magazine. "De 
Chatillon ; or The Crusaders," a Tragedy, was written in 
1824, and " The Forest Sanctuary," her longest poem, in 
1824-5. 

From Bronwylfa, she removed, in 1825, with her children, 
sister, and mother, to a house belonging to her brother, at 
Rhyllon, a quarter of a mile distant. Her " Lays of Many 
Lands," the most of which had appeared in the New 
Montlily, appeared in 1826. This was followed by the lin- 
gering illness, and death (January 11, 1827), of her greatly 
beloved mother. A deeper tone of sadness, and a higher 
style of piety, now pervaded the productions of her pen. 
She began herself to decline in health, and to suffer from 
acute disease. Still she wrote. Her " Records of Woman" 
appeared in 1828. She now left, with many regrets, her 
mountain home, and took up her abode at Wavertree, near 
Liverpool — the eldest two of her sons having been sent to 
join their father in Italy. 



FELICIA DOROTHEA [BROWNE] HEMANS. 319 

She visited Scotland in the summer of 1829, receiving 
everywhere, as a literary celebrity, the most flattering at- 
tentions, and forming a most pleasant acquaintance ^vith 
Jeffrey, Basil Hall, Mackenzie, Alison, and especially with 
Sir Walter Scott, whose hospitality she greatly enjoyed. 
The following winter she wTote the princiiDal lyrics, in her 
" Songs of the Affections," published in 1830. A part of 
the next summer she spent at Ambleside, and made the 
acquaintance of the poet Wordsworth. In the autumn 
she again visited Scotland, returning to Liverpool, by way 
of Dublin and Wales. In the following spring she re- 
moved to Ireland, and after a sojourn with her brother, 
Col. Sir Henry Browne, K.C.H., at Kilkenny, she took up 
her abode, in the autumn (1831), at Dublin. 

Mrs. Hemans had now become a confirmed invalid, as 
well as a mature Christian. More and more she gave her- 
self to the cultivation of her spiritual nature, in Avhich she 
found great assistance and encouragement from the warm 
friendship of Archbishop Whately and his family. Her 
" HjTiins for Childhood," which had been published by her 
admiring friend. Prof. Norton, in 1827, at Boston, Mass., 
were noAv (1834) published for the first time in England. 
Her " National Lyrics " followed soon after, and a volume 
of Sacred Poetry, entitled, "Scenes and Hymns of Life." 

Her work was now almost done. In great debility she 
passed the ensuing winter, as a welcome guest in the hos- 
pitable abode of Archbishop Whately,— Redesdale, seven 
miles from Dublin. In March, 1835, she returned to her 
city home, where, in patient resignation and blissful hope, 
she lingered a few weeks, and then, May 16, 1835, quietly 
yielded up her spirit, in the forty-second year of her age. 

Miss Jewsbury (Mrs. Fletcher), who formed her acquaint- 
ance in 1828, said of her, she " was totally different from 
any of the women I had ever seen, either in Italy or in 
England. She did not dazzle, she subdued me. Other 
women might be more commanding, more versatile, more 

acute ; but I never saw one so exquisitely feminine 

She was a Muse, a Grace, a variable child, a dependent 



320 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

woman, the Italy of liuman beings." Mrs. Grant, of Lag- 
gan, addressed her (1827) by letter, and said : " Praised by 
all that read you, loved by all that praise you, and known, 
in some degree, wherever our language is spoken." 
Her h}Tnn beginning 

" He knelt— the Saviour knelt and prayed," 

was contributed, in 1825, to a Holiday Annual, called " The 
Amulet." Her last poem, the " Sabbath Sonnet," was com- 
posed, Sunday, April 26, about three weeks before her 
death, and dictated to her brother, as follows : 

" How many blessed groups this hour are bending", 

Through England's primrose meadow-paths, their way 

Toward spire and tower, 'midst shadowy elms ascending, 
Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallowed day ! 
The halls, from old heroic ages gray, 

Pour their fair children forth ; and hamlets low, 
With whose tliick orchai-d blooms the soft winds play, 

Send out their inmates in a happy flow, 
Like a freed vernal stream. / may not tread 
With them those X3athways — to the feverish bed 

Of sickness bound ; yet, O my God ! I bless 
Thy mercy, that with Sabbath peace hath filled 
My chastened heart, and all its throbbings stilled 

To one deep calm of lowliest thankfulness." 

The remains of Mrs. Hemans were interred in St. Anne's 
Church, Dublin ; and over her grave the following lines, 
from one of her own sweet poems, were inscribed : 

' ' Calm, on the bosom of thy God, 

Eair spirit ! rest thee now ! 
E'en while with us thy footsteps trod, 

His seal was on thy brow : 
Dust to its narrow house beneath ! 

Soul, to its place on high ! 
Tliey, that have seen thy look in death, 

No more may fear to die." 



JAMES HERYEY. 321 

LUISE HENSEL. 

1798 . 

Miss Hensel was tlie daughter of a Lutheran clergy- 
man, who resided at Linum, in Brandenburg, Germany, 
where, March 30, 1798, she was born. She was sent (1810) 
to Berlin, to complete her education, residing there untU 
1819. She united with the Koman Catholic Church in 
1818, and obtained the position of governess in a boarding- 
school, at Aix-la-Chapelle. Thence she returned to Linum, 
to reside with her widowed mother, who died in 1835. 
During this period she wrote the most of her forty-four 
hymns. The one beginning 

" Immer muss ich. wieder lesen," 
["Ever would I faiu be reading,"— Tr. Miss Winkworth.] 

was printed anonymously in 1829. Her hymns breathe a 
sweet Christian spirit of humility, and exhibit traits of 
genuine Christian experience. 



JAMES HEEYEY. 
1714-1758. 

Mr. Hervey has small claims to be classed among the 
Poets of the Church. He was not a composer of hymns. 
All that he wrote in this line was in the form of a few brief 
translations from the classics. He was a profuse and ex- 
ceedingly florid writer, and had imagination enough to 
have excelled in poetry, had he cultivated it. 

He was the son of a clergyman, residing at Hardingstone, 
England, and holding the living of Collington. James was 
21 



322 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH, 

born, February 26, 1714 ; and, at seven years of age. Tie 
was sent to the Rev, Mr, Clarke's free grammar-scliool at 
Nortliampton. He entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 
1731. John Wesley was then a Fellow of the College, and 
Hervey joined the praying band, organized by the brothers 
Wesley, and identified himself (1733) with the revival 
movement, out of which sprang the Wesleyan denomina- 
tion. From this time until his graduation, he became a 
diligent student. 

At the close of 1736, he was ordained a deacon, and, for 
a short time, served as the Curate of Weston Favell, of 
which parish his father had become the Rector, He be- 
came, in 1737, the Curate of Dummer ; then, for two years 
(1738-1739), he enjoyed the hospitality of his friend, Paul 
Orchard, at Stoke Abbey, Devonshire, obtaining, in 1740, 
the Caracy of Bideford, Here he remained two and a 
half years. In 1741, he exchanged his Arminian for Cal- 
vinistic views of the doctrine of Justification, and made a 
renewed consecration of all his powers to the service of his 
Divine Redeemer, 

While in Devonshire, he had occasion to make an excur- 
sion in the adjacent county of Cornwall. Stopping at a 
considerable village, called Kilkhamton, he strolled, quite 
naturally, into the fine old church built several centuries 
before, — a light and handsome edifice of three aisles, the 
arches sustained by slender and elegant pillars, and the 
floor everywhere covered vnth monumental inscriptions. 
Then and there he conceived the idea of his " Meditations 
among the Tombs," — a book that was probably written at 
Bideford. Among the tomb-stones that suggested his pious 
"Meditations," was one in honor of " Sir BevU Granville, 
slain in the civil wars, at an engagement with the rebels," 
at the battle of Lansdown, His reflections on this tomb are 
closed with these stanzas : 

" Make the extended skies your tomb; 
Let stars record your worth : 
Yet know, vain mortals ! all must die, 
As nature's sickliest birth. 



JAMES HERVEY. 323 

" Would bounteous Heaven indulge my prayer, 
I frame a nobler choice ; 
Nor, living, wish the pomj)ous pile, — 
Nor, dead, regret the loss. 

"In thy fair book of life divine. 
My God ! inscribe my name : 
There let it fill some humble place. 
Beneath the slaughtered Lamb, 

"Thy saints, while ages roll away. 
In endless fame survive ; 
Their glories, o'er the wi"ongs of time, 
Greatly triumphant live." 

The word " slanglitered " in tlie last line of the third 
stanza alludes to the " slaughtered " knight, Sir Bevil. A 
change in the Rectorship closed his Curacy at Bideford, 
and he returned, in 1743, to Weston Favell, and again be- 
came his father's Curate. Having added to his " Medita- 
tions," spiritual " Reflections on a Flower-Garden," and " A 
Descant upon Creation," he published them (1746) in one 
volume. The book was received with extraordinary favor. 
A reflection on the admirable adjustment of form and color 
to the times and seasons, leads him to plead for content- 
ment with the allotments of Divine Providence. In a mar- 
ginal note, he quotes a quatrain from Juvenal as follows : 

" Permittas ipsis expendere numinibus, quid 
• Conveniat nobis, rebiosque sit utile nostris. 
Nam pro jucundis aptissima qu?eque dabunt dii : 
Carior est illis homo, quam sibi." 

Of these lines he then gives the following paraphrase : 

" Since all the downward tracts of time 
God's watchful eye surveys. 
Oh ! who so wise to choose our lot, 
And regulate our ways ? 

" Since none can doubt his equal love, 
Unmeasurably kind, 
To his unerring gracious will 
Be every wish resigned. 



324 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

" Good when lie gives, supremely good, 
Nor less, when he denies ; 
E'en crosses, from his sovereign hand, 
Are blessings in disguise." 

These three stanzas, slightly altered, the second and third 
transposed, with the one referred to above attached, were 
arranged by the Eev. Dr. William B. Collyer (1812), or 
some earlier compiler, into an acceptable hymn as now 
found in many Collections. Collyer includes also the 
fourth stanza of the former hymn. 

A second volume of a similar character, entitled, — " Con- 
templations on the Night, and the Starry Heavens ; with a 
Winter Piece," appeared in December, 1747. His health 
now seriously declined ; and in June, 1750, he was sent by 
his family to London, where he continued until April, 1752, 
when, having recovered from an alarming illness, and his 
father having died, he returned home, took the degree of 
A.M., at Cambridge University, and succeeded his father 
in the two livings of Weston Favell and Collingtree. 

His "Remarks on Lord Bolingbroke's Letters on the 
Study and Use of History,'"' appeared in November, 1762 ; 
his " Theron and Aspasio," in three volumes, followed in 
January, 1755 ; and his " Aspasio Vindicated " was nearly 
ready for the press, when, having long been subjected to 
wasting disease, in great debility, but in the fullest and 
sweetest assurance of faith and hope, Mr. Hervey died, De- 
cember 25, 1758. 

He was one of the godliest men of his day, and of most 
exemplary life. He was in full sympathy with the apos- 
tolic Whitefield, Lady Huntingdon, Henry Venn, William 
Romaine, and their associates. His "Meditations," "Re- 
flections," and "Contemplations," have been immensely 
popular, and are still great favorites. His "Works," in 
six volumes, have been frequently published. 



JOHN WILLIAM HEWETT. 325 



JOHN WIILIAM HEWETT. 

Me. Hewett is a clergyman of tlie Clinrch of England, 
and an eminent teacher. He entered Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, in 1845, and graduated, A.B., in 1849, and A.M., in 
1852. He became an author while an undergraduate. 
Much addicted to antiquarian research, he edited, in 1848, 
the "Sealed Copy of the Prayer-Book of 1662"; "Liber 
Precum Publicarum"; a "Brief History and Description 
of the Conventual and Cathedral Church of Holy Trinity, 
Ely"; a "Brief History and Description of the Cathedral 
Church of St. Peter, Exeter"; and "The Arrangement of 
Parish Churches Considered." 

He was ordained, by the Bishop of Chichester, a deacon, 
June 3, 1849, and a priest, May 26, 1850. He was chosen a 
Fellow, and appointed Tutor, of St. Nicholas' College, Shore- 
ham, in 1849 ; and, in 1853, became the Head-Master of 
All-Saints' Grammar- School, and Curate of the Church of 
Bloxham, Oxfordshire. In 1857, he obtained the Curacy 
of St. George's, Whitwlck, Leicestershire ; and, in 1871, he 
became the Curate of St. Paul's, Bunhill Row, London. 

" Verses by a Country Curate," from his i^en, appeared 
In 1859. Several of the hymns in this work have come 
into use, among them, the one beginning 

" In the name of God, the Father." 

Six of his hymns are found in Shipley's "Lyra Messian- 
ica" (1865). They pertain to the ritualistic school of hjTnn- 
ology. He has given much time and care to the prepara- 
tion of a " Bibliotheca Sacra Parvulorum," including a 
contribution to Hymnology in " Hymnorum Latinorum 
Delectus." The following lines are from his version of 
" Hsec est sancta solemnitas solemnitatum": 

" Hail the holy day of days ! 
High the song of triumph raise ; 
To the Saviour's glory teU 
How the cross hath vanquished hell, 



326 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

And the empire, old and strong, 

Satan's power had held so long. 

By the precious blood are we 

Now redeemed of Christ, and free ; 

High thanksgiving, therefore, raise, 

Sing the great Redeemer's praise. 

King of kings ! thy saints unite 

To the choir of angels bright ; 

Hear them when they make their prayer, 

For thy worship is their care ; 

Show them, Lord ! thy tender grace, — 

All the sweetness of thy face." 



ROWLAND HILL. 

1744-1833. 

The eccentric, yet godly and liiglily honored, Rowland 
Hill was among the most useful of the apostolic men who 
took part in promoting the " Great Revival of the Eight- 
eenth Century." He was the sixth son of Sir Rowland 
Hill, Bart., and Jane, the daughter of Sir Brian Broughton, 
Bart., of Broughton, England. Hawkstone, the residence 
of Sir Rowland, is in the chax)elry of Weston, parish of 
Hodnet, the home, for many years, of Heber. " Beautiful 
for situation," "Nature has lavished her choicest beau- 
ties on that lovely spot." "So commanding is the situa- 
tion of this enchanting ground, that, from the lofty column 
erected to the memory of a distinguished ancestor of the 
Hills — the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London — the eye 
can wander at pleasure over fifteen counties." 

In this charming locality, Rowland was born, August 23, 
1744, and spent his early boyhood. In the midst of the 
gaieties to which he was accustomed from infancy, he be- 
came, when quite young, the subject of serious impressions, 
occasioned by the frequent reading of Dr. Watts' Hymns, 
given him by a devout lady. He was fitted for the Uni- 



ROWLAND HILL. 327 

versity at the Royal Free Grammar- Scliool, at Shrewsbury ; 
and, from 1761, at Eton College. His eldest brother, Rich- 
ard, had become a decided and zealous Christian ; and a 
letter of godly counsel from Richard, about this time, was 
the means of Rowland's conversion. To the elder brother, 
and his no less pious sister, Jane, Rowland was greatly in- 
debted for constant advice in the way of godliness during 
his student's course. 

He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, October, 1764. 
His piety made him a marked man in the midst of prevail- 
ing ungodliness. Berridge, the godly Vicar of Everton, 
soon found him out, and encouraged him to persevere in 
the ways of holiness. Rowland spent his Sabbaths, ordi- 
narily, at Everton, and imbibed much of Berridge's spirit, 
and not a little of his eccentric style of speech and address. 
He engaged, also, in evangelical labors for the poor, visit- 
ing the sick, the inmates of the workhouses, the prisoners, 
and others. He embraced every opportunity, moreover, to 
expound the Scriptures in the hamlets and villages about 
Cambridge. He sought counsel of Whitefield, and was 
greatly cheered by his spiritual and animating letters. A 
praying-band was formed in the University, six of whom, 
in 1768, were expelled from College, because of their " en- 
thusiasm." Rowland, though in this respect the greatest 
" sinner" of them all, escaped, and graduated, A.B., in 1769. 

He would gladly have taken orders. But the church au- 
thorities declined to lay their ordaining hands on one so 
addicted to irregularities as the baronet's son. Four times 
he was refused. Yet he preached, wherever, in town or 
country, he could gather the people to hear. During the 
winter, he pursued his studies at Hawkstone, his paternal 
home. The rest of the year he ranged over the country, 
seeking to save the lost. At length, through the influence 
of Mr. Tredway, who had married Rowland's sister, and 
whose sister about this time was married to Rowland, he 
was ordained a deacon, June 6, 1773, by the Rev. Dr. Ed- 
ward Willes, Bishop of Bath and Wells, having received 
an appointment to the Curacy of Kingston in that diocese. 



328 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

He built himself a house at Wotton-under-Edge, midway 
between Bristol and Gloucester, and radiated thence, with 
wonderful success, all over Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, 
Wiltshire, and Wales, extending his circuits to Bristol and 
London, and far away to the West, through Devonshire 
and Cornwall. 

At length, having often addressed great crowds on 
Blackfriars Road, Surrey, he determined to build a 
chapel in that neighborhood ; and " Surrey Chapel," 
half a mile from Blackfriars Bridge, called, on account 
of its octagonal form, " The Religious Round-House," 
was opened, June 8, 1783. Alternating between Surrey 
Chapel in the winter and Wotton in the summer, with 
frequent preaching rambles elsewhere, this extraordinary 
man continued, for fifty years longer, doing his Master's 
work, and leading a great multitude to Christ. Never 
having attained to the priesthood, he occu^Died a posi- 
tion of great catholicity ; " theoretically a churchman, and 
practically a Dissenter, — a Dissenter within the Church, 
a Churchman among Dissenters." He espoused the cause 
of the poor ; organized and patronized Societies for their 
relief ; took a most active part in founding the " London 
Missionary Society," the " Religious Tract Society," and 
the "British and Foreign Bible Society"; preached and la- 
bored for them ; and delighted in seconding and fostering 
every godly enterprise for the good of the poor and the 
salvation of the lost. He was one of the earliest i)atrons of 
Sunday-Schools, and eagerly embraced opportunities for 
their advancement. 

But, as long as he lived, he was intent on seeking out the 
lost sheep. Once and again he visited Scotland ; repeatedly 
he went to Ireland ; and Wales was often cheered by his 
presence, and enlivened by his preaching. He was wont to 
describe himself facetiously, as "the Rector of Surrey 
Chapel, Vicar of Wotton-under-Edge, and Curate of all the 
Fields, Commons, etc., throughout England and Wales." 
His ministry was prolonged for sixty-six years, during 
whicli time he had preached more than 28,000 times, aver- 
aging nearly one sermon daily for the whole period. 



ROWLAND HILL. 339 

Notwithstanding this incessant activity as a preacher, he 
found opportunity for the frequent use of the press. He 
published : " Imposture Detected and the Dead vindicated " 
(1777) ; " Answer to J. Wesley's Remarks upon the Defence 
of the Character of Whitefield and others " (1778); "Aphor- 
istic Observations proposed to the Consideration of the 
Public respecting the Propriety of admitting Theatrical 
Amusements into Country Manufacturing Towns " (1790) ; 
" Expostulatory Letter to W. D. Tattersall, A.M., in which 
the bad Tendency of the Admission of Stage Amusements 
is seriously considered " (1795); " Journal of a Tour through 
the North of England, and Parts of Scotland, with Remarks 
on the present State of the Church of Scotland " (1799) ; 
"Extract from a Journal of a second Tour from London 
through the Highlands of Scotland, and the North- Western 
Parts of England" (1800); "A Plea for .Union and a free 
Propagation of the Gospel, being an Answer to Dr. Jamie- 
son's Remarks on the Author's Tour " (1800) ; " Village Di- 
alogues, 2 vols." (1801), to which a third volume Avas added 
in 1824; "Apology for Sunday- Schools " (1801); "Cow- 
pock Inoculation vindicated " (1806) ; " A Warning to Chris- 
tian Professors " (1806) ; " Investigation of the Nature and 
Effects of Parochial Assessments being charged on Places 
of Religious Worship " (1811) ; " Letter on Roman Catholic 
Emancipation " (1813) ; besides several occasional Sermons. 

As early as 1774, he put forth a " Collection of Psalms 
and Hjanns," chiefly for the use of the Poor. Another 
" Collection " appeared in 1783, the year of the opening of 
Surrey Chapel, and, in 1796, still another "Collection," 
"chiefly intended for Public Worship." The latter con- 
tains 302 hymns, of which some, as he says in his Preface, 
"are by no means the better for being new." "Divine 
Hymns for the Use of Children" appeared in 1790, of 
which a new edition, "principally intended for the Use 
of Sunday-Schools," prepared for the Southwark Sunday- 
School Society, containing 264 hymns, was issued in 1819. 
In the Preface to this book, he says, that his earlier hjanns 
'had passed under the correcting pen of the inimitable 



330 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Cowper,— a liberty I presumed to request from an acquaint- 
ance with that great and truly good man in the younger 
part of my life." 

As years declined and strength decayed, he abated noth- 
ing of his fervid zeal, though more and more restricted in 
its exercise. He continued in active service until a very 
few days before his decease. As the day of his departure 
drew near, his happy spirit hailed its approach, and, full of 
the triumphs of an assured hope of immortality, he ceased 
from labor, April 11, 1833, and entered into rest, in the 
eighty-eighth year of his age. 

One of the wittiest men th^it ever entered a pulpit, he 
was yet one of the most serious. His preaching was full of 
similes, metaphors, lively narratives, parabolical illustra- 
tions, quaint sayings, and even humorous conceits ; yet 
with all, and through all, he sought to win souls to Christ 
in and by the Gospel. He was a Calvinist, and yet none 
labored more than he to bring souls to Christ, the Master,— 
and none with greater success. The following stanzas from 
his hjTnn on " A Prayer for the Promised Rest," w^hich he 
regarded as the best among the many that he wrote, exhibit 
something of the depth of his piety, and the singleness of 
his trust in divine grace ; 

" Dear Friend of friendless sinners! hear, 
And magnify thy grace divine; 
Pardon a worm that won] d draw near, 

That would his heart to thee resign : — 
A worm, by self and sin oppressed, 
That pants to reach thy promised rest. 

" With holy fear and reverend love, 

I long to lie beneath thy throne ; 
I long in thee to live and move. 

And charge myself on thee alone: 
Teach me to lean upon thy breast, 
To find in thee the promised rest. 

" Take me, my Saviour ! as thine own, 
And vindicate my righteous cause ; 



AUGUSTUS LUCAS HILLHOUSE 331 

Be thou my portion, Lord ! alone, 
And bend me to obey tby laws ; 
In thy dear arms of love caressed, 
Give me to find thy promised rest." 



AUGUSTUS LUCAS HILLHOUSE. 
1792-1859. 

Mr. Hillhouse was of Irish descent. His great-grand- 
father, Rev. James H. Hillhonse, came from County Derry, 
Ireland, in 1720, to Connecticut, and, in 1722, became, until 
his death (1740), the first pastor of the second Congrega- 
tional Church of New London, now Montville, Conn. Will- 
iam, the son of James (1727-1816), was, for fifty years, a 
member of the Connecticut Legislature ; also, a Judge, for 
forty years, of the Court of Common Pleas; and (1783- 
1786) a member of the Continental Congress ; — a sterling 
patriot, and an exemplary Christian. James, the son of 
William (1754-1832), was a graduate (1773) of Yale Col- 
lege ; a Representative (1791-1794), and a Senator (1794- 
1810), in the Congress of the United States ; a member of 
the famous Hartford Convention (1814) ; and Treasurer of 
Yale College (1782-1832). His wife, a daughter of Col. 
Melancthon Woolsey, of Dosoris, Long Island, IS". Y., was 
" a lady of great refinement, beauty, and strength of mind 
and character." 

Augustus Lucas, the son of Hon. James Hillhouse, LL.D., 
was born, in 1792, at New Haven, Conn., about two years 
later than his brother, the eminent poet, James Abraham. 
" Constitutionally gentle," says Rev. Dr. L. Bacon, " affec- 
tionate, sensitive, full of imagination, he was the idol of 
his sisters, and the joy and hope of the domestic circle in 
his father's house." With the very best advantages of 
education in his boyhood, he entered (1806) Yale College, 



332 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

where the development " of philosophic and poetic thought, 
in combination with genuine piety, as evinced in his rapid 
acquisition of knowledge, gave promise of a bright career 
of usefulness." He numbered among his classmates such 
men as Gov. Ellsworth, and Profs. E. T. Fitch, C. A. Good- 
rich, and S. F. B. Morse. At his graduation (1810), he had 
become a victim of chronic dyspepsia, — a malady from 
which he suffered the remainder of his life. 

At the close of the war with Great Britain, followed by 
the general pacification of Europe (1816), he went abroad 
for his health. Landing at Bordeaux, he travelled through 
the south of France to Geneva, and thence to Paris, where 
he met with Robert Haldane, and entered heartily into his 
evangelizing projects. Fixing his abode in Paris, he united 
with others of his countrymen in organizing the American 
Protestant Church, to which, at his solicitation, the Rev. 
Matthias Bruen, of New York, ministered for a season. 
" Nothing would have been done at all," says Bruen, " had 
it not been for Hillhouse, who is a treasure to me of genius, 
and intellect, and imagination, and Christian principle, so 
based and combined as it never was in any other mind. " 

He initiated and zealously prosecuted plans for the spir- 
itual enlightenment of France. He began the publication 
of a Series of Tracts in French, after the manner of the 
" Cheap Repository " Series of Hannah More, with whom 
he put himself in correspondence, and several of whose 
Tracts he revised and translated for the French market. 
In 1818, he published an " Essay on the History and Culti- 
vation of the European Olive Tree"; and, in 1819, a Trans- 
lation, in two large volumes, of Michaux's " Silva Amer- 
icana." 

Early in 1822, he sent home the following hymn, pub- 
lished, originally, in the April Number of the New Haven 
Christian Spectator for 1822. It was Avritten in Paris, and 
is " the only permanent memorial of his poetic genius that 
now remains": 

' ' Trembling, before thine awful throne, 
O Lord ! in dust mv sins I own • 



AUGUSTUS LUCAS HILLHOUSE. 333 

Justice and Mercy for my life 
Contend!— Oh! smile, and heal the strife. 

" The Saviom' smiles! upon my soul 
New tides of hope tumultuous roll— 
His voice proclaims my pardon found- 
Seraphic transport wings the sound. 

" Earth has a joy mi known in heaven — 
The new-born peace of sin forgiven ! 
Tears of such pure and deep delight, 
Ye Angels ! never dimmed yom* sight. 

"Ye saw, of old, on chaos rise 
The beauteous pillars of the skies; 
Ye know where Morn exulting springs, 
And Evening folds her droopiug wings. 

" Bright heralds of th' Eternal Will, 
Abroad his ei'rands ye fulfill ; 
Or, throned ia floods of beamy day, 
Symphonious, in his presence play. 

" lioud is the song— the heavenly plain 
Is shaken with the choral strain — 
And dying echoes, floating far. 
Draw music from each chiming star. 

" But I amid your quires shall shine. 
And all your knowledge will be mine; 
Ye on your hai-ps must lean to hear 
A secret chord that mine will bear." 

Of tliis hymn, Dr. Bacon, somewhat extravagantly, says, 
it " is unsurpassed in the English, or any other, language. 
Perhaps it is as near perfection as an uninspired composi- 
tion can be. The thought, the feeling, the imagery, the 
diction, and the versification, are all exquisite." It is bet- 
ter as a poem, than as a hymn. It lacks some of the best 
elements of a devotional lyi'ic, 

Mr. Hillhouse, in 1823, wrote a work, which he called,— 
" A Demonstration of the Natural Method in Politics, or 
the Political Experience of the United States, applied to 
Europe," an abstract, or extended notice, of which he pub- 



334 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

lislied (1826) in a pamphlet, entitled, — " The Natural 
Method m Politics, being the Abstract of an unpublished 
Work." The larger work remained unpublished. It was 
reconstructed, but never finished, though his heart was set 
upon it, and it became the one thought and purpose of his 
remaining days. 

The morbid sensitiveness of his highly refined nature, 
aggravated by the painful malady that had so remorselessly 
fastened itself upon him, developed itself at length in a 
sort of monomania, and he became a confirmed recluse. 
Having continued a resident of Paris nearly forty-three 
years, without once revisiting America, he died, March 14, 
1859, in one of the villages near the great city, whither he 
had been accustomed to resort during the spring and sum- 
mer months. In this rural retreat, he made hosts of friends 
among the poor villagers, who knew him only as " Monsieur 
Auguste," and greatly mourned his death. His remains 
were sent home, and deposited in the beautiful cemetery of 
his native city. 



GRACE WEBSTER HINSDALE. 

1832 . 

Mrs. Hit^sdale is the daughter of the late Rev. Prof. 
Charles Brickett Haddock, D.D. She was born, in 1832, at 
Hanover, and was named for Grace [Fletcher] Webster, the 
beloved wife of her father's uncle, Daniel Webster. She 
spent her youth, and was educated, in her native town. 
In 1850, she became the wife of Theodore Hinsdale, Esq., a 
lawyer of the city of New York, and a resident of Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. In 1866, she published " Coming to the King," 
and later, " Thinldng Aloud," one a manual of Prayers, 
the other a series of meditations on passages in God's 
word, designed as aids to children in the ofiices of devo- 
tion. These little volumes were subsequently republished 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 335 

in London. She lias contributed frequently, botli prose 
and poetry, to various periodicals, weekly and monthly. 
Four of her poetic tributes are to be found in Dr. Schaff's 
" Christ in Song." The following, entitled, " My Heavenly 
Friend," was written in July, 1868 : 

" Jesus! the rays divine, 
Which from thy presence shine, 
Cast light o'er depths profound, 
Which in thy word are found. 
And lead me on. 

" The love within thine eye 
Oft checks the rising sigh ; 
The touch of thy dear hand 
Answers my heart's demand. 
And comforts me. 

" Yes, Lord! in hom's of gloom, 
When shadows fill my room. 
When pain breathes forth its groans, 
And grief its sighs and moans. 
Then thou art near. 

" Oh! will it always be 

That thou wilt comfort me ? 
When friends are far away, 
Wilt thou, my Saviour 1 stay, 
And soothe my pain ? 

' ' Jesus ! thou art my life ; 
No more I dread the strife; 
The rays of light divine, 
Which from thy presence shine, 
Fall o'er my heart." 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 

1809 — ^^^ 

De. Holmes has acquired a brilliant repi.l.ition as an 
essayist, an author, and a poet. His hymns are few, but 



336 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

good ; his poetic vein runs rather in another line. He ia 
the elder son of the Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D., LL.I). (well 
known as the author of the " American Annals," 2 vols., 
1805), and Sarah, the daughter of the Hon. Oliver Wen- 
dell, of Boston. His father was (1792-1832) pastor of the 
First Congregational Church, of Cambridge, Mass., where, 
August 29, 1809, the son was born, and named for his 
maternal grandfather. His paternal grandfather, David 
Holmes, was an army surgeon and physician, in the French 
and Revolutionary Wars, having died during the latter, in 
1779. 

In the literary atmosphere of Cambridge, young Holmes 
enjoyed every advantage for the highest intellectual cul- 
ture. He fitted for College at Phillips Academy, Exeter, 
IN". H; entered Harvard College, Cambridge, in 1825 ; and 
graduated, A.B., in 1829. One year was given to the study 
of law, during which he wrote twenty-five poetic pieces for 
Tlie Collegian, a periodical published by the college boys 
at Cambridge. He then began the study of medicine, and 
in 1833 contributed other productions of his muse to Tlie 
Harbinger, Boston. The same year he visited Europe, and 
prosecuted his medical studies^ at Paris. He returned in 
1836, and took the degree of M.D. at Harvard. His first 
volume of " Poems " appeared in 1836. He was appointed 
(1838) Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth 
College, N. H. ; and, the same year, he published his " Boyl- 
ston Prize Dissertations." In 1840, he married a daughter 
of the Hon. Charles Jackson, of Boston, whither he removed 
and commenced the practice of medicine. In 1842, he pub- 
lished his " Lectures on Homoeopathy," etc. ; and, in 1848, 
j^is "Report of Medical Literature." In 1847, he became 
g-hx)fessor of Anatomy and Physiology in Harvard Univer- 
^ppg,^ which position he occupied until 1882, when he was 
tion cS^^^^ Emeritus Professor of Anatomy, " in considera- 
fTia T^oe+^l^i'^ valuable sexv^'-^-^'^i'se. Me/^catl School during 
tne past iv^iipj-.- ^- e years. " 

Besides Y.veral medical publications, he has been a^. con- 
stant contributor to the Magazines and R;.iewt-t^^^^^^^^^^^ 



OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 337 

erhoclcer, the North American, and, notably, the Atlantic; 
of the latter Magazine, begun in 1857, he may properly be 
regarded as the chief founder, and from its beginning, the 
chief attraction. " The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," 
" The Professor at the Brealdast Table," and " The Poet at 
the Breakfast Table," three brilliant Series of Essays, ap- 
peared first in The Atlantic. In 1843, appeared his " Terp- 
sichore"; in 1846, his "Urania"; and, in 1850, his " As- 
traea. " His " Poems " have been frequently republished both 
in England and America. His " Elsie Venner " appeared 
in 1861 ; his " Guardian Angel," in 1867 ; and his " Mechan- 
ism in Thought and Morals," in 1871. 

He has also distinguished himself as a public lecturer. 
His course of lectures on " The English Poets of the Nine- 
teenth Century," delivered in 1852, gave great satisfaction. 
Many of his shorter poems have been produced almost im- 
promptu, on festive, social, and prandial occasions. They 
abound in fine conceits, terse and epigrammatic sayings, 
caustic wit, and broad humor. "His fancy teems with 
bright and appropriate images, .... woven into his plan 
usually with exquisite finish and grace. His artistic merits 
are very great ; his versification is never slovenly, nor his 
diction meagre or coarse ; and many of his shorter pieces 
are inwrought with so much fire and imagination as to 
rank among our best lyi'ics." So says Prof. Bowen. His 
friend Lowell, in his " Fable for Critics," quaintly and hu- 
morously says : 

" You went crazy last year over Bulwer's New Timon: 
Why, if B., to the day of his dyin^, should rhyme on, 
Heaping verses on verses, and tomes upon tomes. 
He could ne'er reach the best point and vigor of Holmes. 
His are just the fine hands, too, to weave you a lyric 
Full of fancy, fun, feeling, or spiced with satiric, 
In so kindly a measure, that nobody knows 
What to do, but e'en join in the laugh, friends and foes." 

His "Hymn of Trust" is a fair specimen of his lyric 
art: 

" O Love divine! that stooped to share 
Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear, 
22 



338 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

On thee we cast each earth-horn care ; 
We smile at pain while Thou art near ! 

" Though long the weary way we tread, 
And sorrow crown each lingering year, 
No path we shun, no darkness dread, 

Our hearts still whispering, — Thou art near I 

' ' When drooping pleasure turns to grief. 
And trembling faith is changed to fear, 
The murm'ring wind, the quivering leaf, 
Shall softly tell us, — Thou art near! 

" On thee we fling our burdening woe, 
O Love divine, for ever dear ! 
Content to suffer, while we know. 
Living and dying, — Thou art near I " 



HENRY JOY Mccracken hope. 

1809-1872. 

Mr. Hope was the son of James Hope, and was born (1809) 
near Belfast, Ireland. At a suitable age lie was bound 
as an apprentice to the art and business of book-binding. 
In 1846, he entered the finishing department of the station- 
ery establishment of the Messrs. Chambers, at Dublin, and 
continued to be thus employed until his death. He was, 
from an early period of his life, deeply interested in relig- 
ion. The hymn, beginning 

" Now I have found a Friend," 

seems to have been his only production of the kind made 
public. It was printed, in 1852, for circulation among his 
personal friends. He died, January 19, 1872, at Shanema- 
gowston, Dunadry, County Antrim, Ireland. 



JOSIAH HOPKINS. 339 

JOSIAH HOPKINS. 

1786-1862. 

The Rev. Dr. HoPKiisrs was the son of Ebenezer Hopkins 
and Racliel Mead, residents of Pittsford, Vermont, where, 
April 25, 1786, lie was born. His educational advantages 
were quite limited. Having determined to devote himself 
to the work of the ministry, he studied (1808), for a short 
time, under the direction of his pastor, the Rev. Holland 
Weeks ; and, then, Avith the Rev. Lemuel Haynes, the fa- 
mous mulatto pastor of the West parish in the adjacent 
town of Rutland. He was licensed to preach the Gospel, 
by the Pawlet Association, at their spring meeting (1809) 
in Granville, IST. Y. A short service as a missionary in the 
towns on the west border of Lake Champlain, N. Y., was 
followed by a call to the pastoral charge of the Congrega- 
tional Church of New Haven, Addison Co., N. Y., where he 
was ordained, June 14, 1809. 

Though in a remote rural parish, he made such full proof 
of his ministry, that he was soon known as an uncommonly 
thoughtful and judicious preacher. Students from the 
neighboring College of Middlebury, Vt., aft,er their gradu- 
ation, were accustomed to resort to Mr. Hopkins for in- 
struction in theology. For this purpose, he prepared an 
admirable course of theological lectures, which he pub- 
lished, in 1825, with the title,—" The Christian's Instructor, 
containing a Summary Explanation and Defence of the 
Doctrines and Duties of the Christian Religion." It has 
jjassed through several editions. 

A more extended field was opened for him, and, August 
20, 1830, he was dismissed from his Vermont charge (where 
he had been favored, in 1816, and in 1822, with precious re- 
vivals of religion), to accept a call to the pastorate of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Auburn, N. Y., as the suc- 
cessor of the Rev. Dirk C. Lansing, D.D. He was installed 
at Auburn, September 28, 1830. He continued in this re- 



340 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

sponsible post, useful and honored, nntil April, 1846, when, 
his health having been so seriously impaired that he could 
no longer occupy the pulpit, he resigned his charge. After 
a short residence at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, he returned to 
New York, and found a home at Seneca Falls, ministering, 
as health pei-mitted, to the Church at Union Springs. He 
died, June 27, 1862, at Geneva, N. Y. 

He married, first. Miss Oriel Dyke, of Chittenden, Yt. ; 
and, after her decease. Miss Lavinia Fenton, of Rutland, 
Yt. In connection with Mr. Henry Ivison, Jr., then of 
Auburn but now of New York, he compiled, and pub- 
lished, in 1847, a Selection of "• Conference Hymns Adapted 
to Religious Conferences, and Meetings for Prayer. To 
which is Added a Selection of the most favorite Melodies 
in Common Use." The honorary degree of D.D. was con- 
ferred on him, in 1843, by Middlebury College, Yt. 



JOSEPH HOSKINS. 

1745-1788. 

Mr. Hoskins was a Bai)tist minister, at Bristol, England. 
The year after his decease, appeared "Hymns on Select 
Texts of Scripture, and Occasional Subjects, By the Rev. 
Joseph Hoskins, Late Minister of the Gospel at Castle 
Green Meeting, Bristol. Carefully corrected and revised 
By the Rev. James Moody, of Warwlch, And the Rev. Mr. 
Bottomley, Bristol, 1789." From the "Preface," it seems, 
" that the whole of the compositions [384] were Avritten in 
about the last three years of his life." All that is known 
of his personal history is gathered from an Epitaph, de- 
signed for his tombstone in " the Baptist Burying Ground " 
at Bristol, and jDrefixed to his volume of " Hymns": 

" Here lie interred the Mortal Remains of the Rev. Jo- 
seph Hoskins, the lively, active, and successful Minister of 



WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW. 34I 

the Church of Christ assembling in Castle-Grreen, in this 
City : Who (by the blessing of God on his labors), in the 
course of ten years that he presided over the Church as a 
faithful Pastor, raised it, from a low and languid estate, to 
a truly respectable and flourishing condition. Fully to de- 
3lare the sweetness of his manners and deportment, the 
warmth and steadiness of his friendship, his zeal and alac- 
rity to do good to the bodies and souls of men, would 
require more room than this Monumental Table will admit. 
The soundness of his doctrine, clearly and experimentally 
delivered, and finely illustrated from Scripture ; the mel- 
ody of his voice, the justness of his action, joined to a free 
and native eloquence which God had given him, made him 
a great and an agreeable preacher ; whilst the boldness of 
his address, and the closeness of his application, forced (as 
it were) conviction on the souls of men ; — and that amazing 
gift in prayer, with which God had blessed him, raised him 
to the highest pitch of admiration. 

" That the great Master of Assemblies held him in his 
hand as a star of the first magnitude, cannot justly be de- 
nied : He lent him to the churches as a bright and shin- 
ing light for a season ; He has now withdrawn him to 
realms of light and bliss above, where the shafts of envy 
and detraction cannot reach him. He died on the 28th 
day of September, 1788, aged 43 years." 

Twenty-one of his hymns are found in Dobell's Selection. 



WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW. 

1823 . 

The poetry of Mr. How is of a good order, and liis sacred 
lyrics have been well received. He is a native of Shrews- 
bury, Shropshire, England, and the son of William Wy- 
berg How, Esq., Solicitor, of Nearwell. He was born, De- 



342 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

cember 13, 1823. He was fitted for tlie University, at the 
Eoyal Free Grammar- School of that town, then under the 
care of the Rev. Benjamin Hall Kennedy, D.D. He en- 
tered Wadham College, Oxford, in 1841, and graduated, 
B. A., in 1845, Appointed the Curate of one of the churches 
of Kidderminster, Worcestershii'e, he was ordained a dea- 
con, December 20, 1846, and a priest, December 19, 1847, by 
the Bishop of Worcester. In 1851, he obtained the Eectory 
of Wittington, near Oswestry, Shropshire. 

He published : in 1852, " Daily Family Prayer, chiefly 
from the Prayer Book"; in 1859, " Plain Words, or Six 
Short Sermons," and, in 1861, a "Second Series"; in 1860, 
"Psalm LI., a Course of Seven Sermons"; and, in 1861, 
"Prayers for Schools." In connection with the Rev. 
Thomas Baker Morrell, he compiled, and published (1854), 
a volume of ' ' Psalms and Hymns," of which a later edition 
(1872) contains a "Supplement" and "Church Hymns." 
The following is one of his hymns for children : 

" Lord ! this day thy children meet 
In thy courts with willing feet ; 
Unto thee this day they raise 
Grateful hearts in hymns of praise. 

" Not alone the day of rest 
With thy worship shall be blessed ; 
In our pleasure and our glee, 
Lord ! we would remember thee. 

" AU our pleasures here below, 
Saviour ! from thy mercy flow ; 
But, if earth has joys like this. 
What shall be our heavenly bliss ? 

" Make, O Lord! our childhood shine 
With all lovely gi-ace, like thine ; 
Then, through all eternity, 
We shall live in heaven with thee." 



JOSEPH HUMPHREYS. 343 

JOSEPH HUMPHREYS. 

1720 {V) 

Mr. Humphreys was the son of the Rev. Asher Hum- 
phreys, Rector of Barton, Hertfordshire, and subsequently 
of Burford, Oxfordshire. He was born, October 28, 1720, 
at Burford. At the age of ten, he was sent to a grammar- 
school at Fairford, Gloucestershire. His father died in 
1732, and he was sent, at the age of twelve, to a theological 
school in London. In 1738, having become a convert to the 
doctrines of the Wesleys, he began to preach at the Foun- 
dry, London, also at Bristol and elsewhere. He attached 
himself particularly to John Cennick, and accompanied him 
frequently on his evangelistic tours. For his irregularities 
in these respects, he was expelled, December 25, 1739, from 
the school. 

Following the example of Cennick, he separated, April, 
1741, from the Wesleys, and attached himself to White- 
field. Shortly after, he published, at Bristol (1741), "A 
Letter to the Religious Societies, in Testimony against the 
Errors of Universal Redemption and Sinless Perfection." 
The same year, he preached for the Moravians at Deptford, 
West Greenwich. He was, also, one of the four principal 
contributors to T7ie WeeJcly History, just then established, 
in the interest of the new religious movement. Several of 
his " Letters to John Wesley," in opposition to his peculiar 
views, are printed in this Journal. 

He now published (1742), at Bristol, "An Account of 
Joseph Humphreys' Experience of the Work of Grace 
upon his Heart." He was a frequent preacher at the 
Bowling Green, Bristol, and the Tabernacle, London. In 
January, 1743, he united with several clergymen and lay- 
preachers in organizing, near Cardiff, Wales, the first Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Society in the Principality. Attached 
to Cennick's " Sacred Hymns," Part II., published in 1743, 
are six hymns, introduced with this remark,—" These were 



344 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

done by Mr. Joseph. Humplireys." Among these is the 
familiar hymn, 

"Blessed are the sons of God," etc. 

In the modern form common to all the Collections, the re- 
frain to each stanza is taken (as arranged by Martin Madan, 
1760) from the latter half of the last stanza of the original, 
without change in the text. 

Wesley, in his diary for April 3, 1746, says : " I spent 
an agreeable honr with our old fellow-laborer, Mr. Hum- 
phreys. I found him open and friendly, but rigorously te- 
nacious of the unconditional decrees." From "The Cente- 
nary Services of Bristol Tabernacle " (1753), it appears that 
he continued to preach at Bristol many years. Among those 
who ministered at the Tabernacle after its erection in 1753, 
" honorable mention is made of Mr. Humphreys, who seems 
to have been a prudent and zealous man." His later his- 
tory is involved in much obscurity. John Wesley, in his 
Journal, for September 9, 1790, says of him : " In a while 
he renounced Mr. A^Ttiitefield, and was ordained a Presby- 
terian minister. At last he received Episcopal ordination. 
He then scoffed at inward religion, and, when reminded of 
Ms own ' Experience,' replied, ' that was one of the foolish 
things which I wrote in the times of my madness,' " Pos- 
sibly this statement should be taken with considerable al- 
lowance, as a matter of rumor. Gadsby says : "He died in 
London, and was buried in the Moravian Cemetery at Chel- 
sea." The following hymn, found in Dobell's, Bicker- 
steth's, and Spurgeon's Collections, is in his usual vein : 

" Come, guilty souls, and flee away 
To Christ, who heals our wounds; 
This is the welcome Gosi^el day, 
Wherein free grace ahounds. 

" God loved the world, and gave his Son 
To drmk the cuj:) of wrath ; 
And Jesus says — he'll cast out none 
That come to him by faith. 



JOB HUPTON. 345 

" Then, wandering souls! to God retiim, 
Free pardon he will give ; 
Look on your pierced Lord, and mourn, 
And endless life receive." 



JOB HUPTON. 

1762-1849. 

The " Hymns and Spiritual Poems " of Job Hupton were 
reprinted (1861) by Daniel Sedgwdck, of London, with a 
brief Memoir. Mr. Hupton was born, Mardi, 1762, on the 
borders of Needwood Forest, near Burton-upon-Trent, Staf- 
fordshire. He was trained, by a godly mother, to fear the 
Lord. Yet, notwithstanding occasional serious impressions, 
he allowed himself to be led astray by profane companions. 
From an early age until he attained his majority, he labored 
at the forge. 

He was converted (1784), in his twenty-third year, at 
Walsall, near Birmingham, by means of a sermon preached 
by the Rev. John Bradford, Curate of Frilsham, Bedford- 
shire, a very popular clergyman, who ministered frequently 
in Lady Huntingdon's chapels, and particularly at Birming- 
ham. He determined to study for the ministry, and spent 
a short period at the college in Trevecca, Wales. He was 
then employed, for several years, as an itinerant preacher 
in Lady Huntingdon's Connection. In September, 1794, 
ha\dng adopted the views of the Baptists, he became the 
pastor of a Baptist church, in the rural parish of Claxton, 
Norf olkshire. His ministry was protracted more than sixty 
years. He died, October 19, 1849, in the eighty-eighth year 
of his age. 

He was accustomed to wTite, occasionally (1803-1809) for 
the Gospel Magazine, both in poetry and prose. His prose 
articles were gathered, and issued (1843) in a volume with 
the title, " The Truth as it is in Jesus,"— a service, similar 



346 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

to that rendered by Mr. Sedgwick (1861) in respect to Ms 
poems. His versilication was quite respectable. Some of 
Ms poetry has genmne merit, as in Ms " Praise to Jesus," 
of which the first two stanzas are here given : 

' ' Jesus, the Saviour, praise, 

Who left his throne above ; 
Bring- him, ye saints ! your choicest lays, 

For all his love : 
For his beloved bride, 

That he mig-ht make her free, 
He hung, and bled, and groaned, and died, 

On yonder tree. 

" Jesus, the Saviour, praise, 

Who rose and left the dead, 
And lives, through everlasting days, 

Our glorious Head : 
All power to him belongs ; 

All grace in him abounds ; 
Praise him in grateful, cheerful songs, 

With sweetest sounds. " 



WILLIAM HUEN. 

1754-1829. 

Me. HuEisr was born a Churchman, became, and for a long 
term of years continued, a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land, and then, for conscience' sake, attached himself to the 
Dissenting ministry. He was born, December 21, 1754, at 
the fine old manor-house of Breccles Hall, in the southern 
part of Norfolkshire. In early youth he gave evidence of 
more than ordinary mental power. Though not a Univer- 
sity graduate, his early education was superior. At the 
age of twenty-three (1777), he was appointed the Classical 
Tutor of the Free Grammar- School, Dedham, Essex, of which 
the Rev. Dr. Grim wood was the Principal. He entered the 



WILLIAM HURN. 347 

army in 1779; but, having determined to seek tlie ministry, 
he resigned his commission the next year. 

He was ordained by the Rev. Dr. Philip Yonge, the 
Bishop of Norwich, to the diaconate, in 1781, and to the 
priesthood, in 1782. He officiated successively, for five 
years (1781-1785), in the parishes of Beighton, Broome, 
Rattlesden, and Stowmarket, Siiffolkshire. In 1786, he be- 
came, for the first time, a subject of divine grace, and de- 
voted himself to the great work of saving souls, becoming 
a resident on his cure at Rattlesden. In 1788, he was aj)- 
pointed a Chaplain of the Duchess Dowager of Chandos ; 
and, in 1789, married Sarah, a daughter of Thomas Whar- 
rie, Esq., of Hull. The next year, he was presented to the 
Vicarage of Debenham, Suffolk. Having ciiltivated this 
field most faithfully and successfully for twenty -four years, 
he took (1814) the adjacent Curacy of Ashfield-cum-Thorpe, 
in order to extend his usefulness. 

Having for twenty years been troubled in respect to the 
secular character of the Established Church, he, at length, 
October 13, 1822, withdrew from it, and resigned his living. 
In April, 1823, he accepted an invitation to supply the Dis- 
senting chapel at Woodbridge, about ten miles east of Ips- 
wich, in the same county, and in July following became 
the i3astor of the congregation. Here for six years and 
more he labored with great fidelity and acceptableness, un- 
til, after a short illness, he died, October 9, 1829, in great 
peace of mind, and full of hope. 

During his Tutorship at Dedham, he published a de- 
scriptive poem, entitled, "Heath Hill." After he entered 
the ministry, he published (1784) a lyric poem, called " The 
Blessings of Peace." Besides five single sermons, printed 
occasionally, he gave to the press (1823) " A Farewell Tes- 
timony," being his " Two Discourses " at Debenham, on 
vsdthdrawing from the '-'Establishment," with large addi- 
tions. After his removal to Woodbridge, he published 

(1827) "A Glance at the Stage by the Light of Truth," and 

(1828) "A Scriptural Guide to the Knowledge of the Gos- 
pel, in the Fonn of Catechism." 



348 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

At an earlier period (1813), while at Debenham, he had 
compiled and published a volume of " Psalms and Hymns : 
the greater Part Original, and the Selected Compositions 
altered with a view to Purity of Doctrine and general Use- 
fulness." After his removal, he put forth (1824) a second 
edition, with the title, " Hymns and Spiritual Songs, with 
metrical versions from the Psalms, designed to teach the 
Christian Doctrine according to the Analogy of Scri]oture, 
by combining Knowledge and Practice, or the Duties with 
tlie Principles of the Gospel ; containing 420 original com- 
positions." 

He left in manuscript a carefully prepared work (pub- 
lished, 1830), entitled, " Reasons for Secession from the 
Church of England." " Brief Memorials of William Hum " 
appeared in 1831, edited by his two adopted daughters, 
Esther Cooke and Ellen Rouse. The following stanzas 
from one of his hymns (1813) are pleasing specimens of his 
manner and spirit : 

*' There is a river, deep and broad, 
Its course no mortal knows ; 
It fills with joy the Church of God 
And widens as it flows, 

" Clearer than crystal is the stream. 
And bright with endless day ; 
The waves with every blessing teem, 
And life and health convey. 

"Along the shores, angelic bands 
Watch every moving wave ; 
With holy joy their breast expands, 
When men the waters crave. 

" Flow on, sweet stream! more largely flow, 
The earth with glory fill ; 
Flow on, till all the Saviour know, 
And all obey his will." 



ABIGAIL [BRADLEY] HYDE. 349 

ABIGAIL [BRADLEY] HYDE. 
1799-1872. 

Mrs. Hyde was tlie wife of a Congregational minister of 
New England. She was born, September 28, 1799, at Stock- 
bridge, Mass. Her parents were Asahel Ives Bradley and 
Abigail Rogers. She was religiously trained, and in her 
thirteenth year was admitted to the church under the pas- 
toral care of the venerable Dr. Stephen West, one of the 
acutest theologians of the Hopkinsian school. During the 
next two years, she was favored with the ministry of the 
Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, while at school on Litchfield 
Hill, Conn. She was distinguished even then for her in- 
telligent and consistent piety. 

She was married, September 28, 1818, to the Rev. Lavius 
Hyde (1789-1865). Her husband's first pastoral charge was 
(1818-1822) at Salisbury, Conn. He was settled successively 
at Bolton, Conn. (1822-1830) ; at Ellington, Conn. (1830- 
1835) ; at Wayland, Mass. (1835-1840) ; at Becket, Mass. 
(1841-1849); and again at Bolton, Conn. (1849-1860). 
Their next residence was at Vernon, Conn. (1860-1865), 
until the death of Mr. Hyde. The years of her widowhood 
were i)assed among her four surviving children (other four 
having died), and chiefly at the home of her only son, in An- 
dover, Conn., where, April 7, 1872, she died in peace. 

Mrs. Hyde in early life had developed a considerable fa- 
cility in the poetic art. After a visit, in 1821, to the Rev. 
Elias Cornelius and wife, at Salem, Mass., where she had 
been deeply interested in the recital of Dr. Wolffe's labors 
in Palestine, she wrote a poem on the theme, that found a 
place in the columns of the Religious Intelligencer. Two 
hymns w^ere taken fi'om this poem, for a Collection of 
" Monthly Concert Hymns " compiled by Leonard Bacon, 
then a student at Andover Theological Seminary. On their 
removal to Bolton, Mrs. Hyde found there the Rev. Asahel 
Kettleton (the eminent revivalist), just recovering from a 



350 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

severe attack of typhus fever, and occupying himself, as 
strength permitted, in the compilation of "The Village 
Hymns." At his solicitation, she wrote and contributed, 
in addition to the two just referred to (Nos. 463, 470), seven 
hymns, Nos. 42, 303, 333, 335, 337, 449, and 482. 

The following stanzas are from her poem on Palestine : 

' ' Israel ! 'tis thine accepted day, 
Thy God himself prepares the way ; 
Behold his ensign from afar, — 
Behold the light of Jacob's Star ! 
That Star, which once on Bethle'm rose, 
A token on thy mountain glows ; 
The morn of earth's best jubilee 
Sheds its sweet early light on thee. 

"And Thou, who once, on Israel's ground, 
A homeless wanderer wast found. 
Redeemer ! on thy heavenly throne. 
Still call that ancient church thine own : 
Bid her departed light return. 
Thy holy splendor round her burn ; 
From prostrate Judah's ruins raise 
A living temple to thy praise." 



THOMAS JERVIS. 

1748-1833. 

Thomas Jervis was the son of the Rev. Thomas Jervis, 
a Presbyterian minister settled at Ipswich, England, who 
died there, March 21, 1797, in his seventy-third year. The 
son was born in 1748, and, at an early age, was sent to the 
school of the Rev. Dr. David Jennings, in London ; and, at 
his death (1762), to his successors, Rev. Drs. Savage, Kip- 
pis, and Rees. At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed 
Classical and Mathematical Tutor in the Academy at Exe- 
ter, Devonshire. Shortly after, he was chosen the pastor 



THOMAS JEEYIS. 351 

of the Presbyterian Cliiircli at Lympstone, and joint min- 
ister of Topsliam. Two years later (1772), having been ap- 
pointed Tutor to the two sons of the Earl of Sherburne 
(afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne), he became a resident 
at Bowood Park, Wiltshire, the EarTs country-seat. The 
Rev. Dr. Priestly, also, was attached to the household as 
Librarian. 

On the removal (1783) of the Rev. Dr. Rees to the Old 
Jewry, London, Mr. Jervis was prevailed upon to accept a 
call, as his successor, to the pastorate of St. Thomas' 
Presbyterian Church, London. Twelve years later, he 
succeeded the Rev. Dr. Kippis (who had just died) as pas- 
tor of the Presbyterian Church, Prince's Street, near West- 
minster Abbey, — a position of considerable prominence. 
In 1808, he accepted a call to the Mill Hill congrega- 
tion of Leeds, Yorkshire. At the end of ten years, he re- 
tired from active service, to his wife's home, Fryerning, 
Essex, where he died, in 1833. He had married Frances 
Mary, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. John Disney, who sur- 
vived him. 

Mr. Jervis was an Arian, if not a Socinian. In 1811, he 
published a volume of "Sermons on Various Subjects." 
In 1795, he united mth the Rev. Drs. Kippis and Rees, 
and the Rev. Tliomas Morgan, in the compilation and pub- 
lication of " A Collection of Hymns and Psalms for Public 
and Private Worship," designed for Anti-Trinitarian con- 
gregations. A new and improved edition was issued in 
1797. It contained 690 hymns, much modified in many 
cases. The names of the authors, so far as known, are at- 
tached to the hymns, with a list of the authors prefixed to 
the Collection. Sixteen of the hymns are credited to Mr. 
Jervis, and in none of them is there even the most distant 
allusion to the Saviour. They are thoroughly Deistic. The 
following hymn on " Gratitude to God " is a fair specimen 
of the whole : 

" Great Source of all that we enjoy, 
From whom our comforts flow ! 
To thee, who dost our souls reclaim, 
Eternal thanks we owe. 



352 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Thougli the vast debt we ne'er can pay 
Of gratitude and love. 
Yet grant us, Lord ! thine aid divine, 
Thy goodness to improve. 

" Be this, on earth, our chief delight, 
Our feeble songs to join ; 
In heaven we'll celebrate thy praise 
In anthems more divine." 



SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

1822-1882. 

Samuel JoHisrsoN was a native and resident of Salem, 
Mass. He was tlie son of Dr. Samuel and Anna D. Johnson, 
and was born, October 10, 1822. He was fitted for college in 
ttie private schools of Salem, entered Harvard College in 
1838, and graduated, A.B., in 1842. He studied for the 
ministiy in the Cambridge Divinity School, and finished 
his theological course in 1846. Among his classmates were 
Octavius B. Frothingham and Samuel Longfellow. Mr. 
Johnson, in 1853, gathered a congregation at Lynn, Mass., 
" on a Free Church basis," independent of all existing de- 
nominations. He retired from this connection, in 1870, and 
returned to his native place, occupying his time in literary 
pursuits, and lecturing and preaching, occasionally, to au- 
diences and congregations of radical sentiments. He died 
in 1882, in his sixtieth year. 

Mr. Johnson took an active part in the great Social and 
Religious Discussions of his day. He contributed largely 
and ably to The Radical^ on " religious, moral, political, 
and aesthetic " themes ; and wrote a number of essays for 
the "Free Religious Association," of Boston. He pub- 
lished, in 1868, "The Worship of Jesus, in its Past and 
Present Aspects"; and, in 1872, "Oriental Religions, and 
their Relation to Universal Religion. India," — the first of 



EDMUND JONES. 353 

a series on the General Topic. Soon after completing his 
theological course, he and his classmate, Samuel Longfel- 
low, compiled and published (1846) " A Book of Hymns, 
for Public and Private Devotion"; also, in 1864, a volume 
called "Hymns of the Spirit." Several of his own hjonns 
are found in these Collections. From the latter volume are 
taken the following stanzas, from a hymn on " The Conflict 
of Life": 

" Onward! onward! though the region 
Where thou art be drear and lone; 
God hath set a guardian legion 
Very near thee ; — press thou on ! 

' ' Upward ! upward ! Their hosanna 
Eolleth o'er thee, — ' God is love ' ! 
All around thy red-cross banner 
Streams the radiance from above. 

" By the thorn road, and none other, 
Is the mount of vision won ; 
Tread it Avithout shiinking, brother ! 
Jesus trod it ; — press thou on ! " 



EDMUND JONES. 
1722-1765. 

Edmuistd Jones was the son of the Rev. Philip Jones, of 
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, where he was born, in 1722. 
Much of the boyhood of Edmund was spent at Upton-on- 
Severn, Worcestershire, where his father had become the 
pastor of a Baptist church. 

He made an early profession of religion at Upton, and 
was sent to the Baptist College at Bristol, then under the 
care of the Rev. Bernard Foskett, of Broadmead. "When 
only in his twentieth year (1741), he was invited to supply 
the Baptist Church of Exeter, Devonshire, and, in 1743, was 
28 



354 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ordained their i)astor. In common with many of the Baptist 
churches of that i)eriod, the Church of Exeter had till then 
opposed the introduction of "the service of song" into 
public worship. Mr. Jones effected a revolution in this 
respect. His hymn, and the only one extant, so far as 
known, from his pen, 

" Come, hixmble sinner! in whose breast," etc., 

was probably one of several that he then introduced into 
his own church. It was included in Dr. Ryland's Collec- 
tion (1787) with the author's name. 

Dr. Belcher and Mr. Miller erroneously refer the hymn 
to Rev. Edmund Jones, of Trevecca, Wales, — a very differ- 
ent man. Parkinson (in a marginal note connected with 
this hymn, in his Selection, IS'ew York, 1817) says cor- 
rectly : " Mr. Jones was a truly worthy pastor of the Bap- 
tist Church at Exeter, Devon : he departed this life on 
April 15, 1765, aged 43." 



THOMAS JAMES JUDKIN. 

1788-1871. 

Me. Judkit^ was, for more than forty years, a highly pop- 
ular and very useful clergyman in London, England, the 
place of his nativity. His father was a respectable trades- 
man, in comfortable circumstances, who did business in 
Bishopsgate Street. Sir William Curtis, an eccentric al- 
derman of considerable notoriety, took a fancy to the boy 
and showed him much kindness. He went so far as to be 
at charges for his education, sending him to the University 
of Cambridge, where he provided amply for him. Judkin 
entered Caius College in 1811 ; and graduated, A.B., in 1815, 
and A.M., in 1818. 

Having served several years in subordinate positions as a 



THOMAS JAMES JUDKIN. 355 

curate, Mr. Judkin was, in 1828, appointed to the Pei-petual 
Curacy of Somers Town, St. Pancras Parish, London, and 
very soon took a high rank, as a popular evangelical 
preacher, and a laborious, faithful, and successful pastor. 
Here an overflowing congregation gathered about him, 
among whom he had many ardent admirers. He accus- 
tomed himself to frequent services, ordinarily jDreaching 
thrice on the Sabbath, and once during the week, besides 
meeting the children of his charge twice a week for the 
practice of sacred music. He had great skill both in paint- 
ing and music— being passionately fond of them both, and 
of the kindred art, poetry. 

Shortly after his induction, he published (1831) a volume 
of "Church and Home Psalmody," containing about 200 
Hymns and 100 Psalms, of his own composition. It was 
adopted by his congregation for the services of public wor- 
ship. Three years later (1834), he put forth an enlarged 
edition, containing nearly 600 original Psalms and Hymns, 
with the title, — " Church and Home Melodies ; being a New 
Version of the more devotional parts of the Psalms ; to- 
gether with a Version of the Collects, and Original Hymns ; 
for Congregational and Domestic Purposes. " None of them 
exceed four stanzas. Repeated editions, with enlargements, 
followed. He published, also, in 1856, " By-gone Moods ; 
or Hues of Fancy and Feeling, from the Spring to the Au- 
tumn of Life"; containing about 270 original Sonnets, writ- 
ten at various periods of his life. He died in 1871, having 
reached his eighty-third year. 

The following Advent Hymn is the 165th of his Collec- 
tion: 

" There's music in the heaven amid the stillness of the night, 
While shepherds are abiding yet, to watch their fleecy care ; 
The clouds are rolling rapidly, and, in the bursting light, 
To golden harps are caroling the angels bright and fair. 

*' Oh! listen to the choral song which hails a Saviour's birth, 

That fills those humble watchers' hearts with wonder and with love ; 
' Good tidings of great joyf ulness to all who dwell on earth, 
And glory in the highest be to God enthroned above ! ' 



356 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" The world, that had been travailing so long in pain and woe, 

Hath heard, amidst its guilty fears, a voice which soothes to rest ; 
And God the Father's gracious face, with cloud obscured till now, 
Shines through the image of his Son, the blessing and the blessed. 

" With the music of the angels be the music of my heart, 

And let the shepherd's gratitude my every power inflame ; 
And with the anthems of the Church, my soul ! bear thou thy part, 
For all thy mercies shown to thee in Christ's redeeming name." 



SARAH [HALL] BOARDMAN JUDSON. 

1803-1845. 

Mrs. Judson was the eldest child of Ralph and Abiah 
Hall, of Alstead, New Hampshire, where she was born, No- 
vember 4, 1803. Her parents were in humble circum- 
stances, and subsequently removed to Dan vers, Mass., and 
thence to Salem, Mass. They had many children, and 
much domestic care was consequently devolved on Sarah. 
Yet she found time for mental improvement, and obtained 
an education much beyond her station. Both in prose and 
poetry, she took frequent opportunity of exercising her 
power of literary comj^sition, and excelled in both. In 
her seventeenth year, she became a member of the First 
Baptist Church of Salem, Mass., and entered upon a career 
of exemplary piety, and Christian activity, as a Sunday- 
School Teacher and Tract Distributor. 

She was married, July 4, 1825, to the Rev. George Dana 
Boardman, of Livermore, Me., and embarked with him, on 
the 16th of the same month, at Philadelphia, for Calcutta, 
on their way to Burmah as missionaries. On account of 
the Burmese war, they were compelled to remain at Cal- 
cutta nearly eighteen months. Mrs. Boardman was re- 
garded by the English residents, " as the most finished and 
faultiess specimen of an American woman that they had 



JOHN e:eble. 357 

ever known." She was of medmm statnre, and had a fine 
form, a soft blue eye, and a lovely face. 

They resided successively, after their arrival (April, 1827) 
in Burmah, at Amherst, Maulmain, and Tavoy. Three chil- 
dren were born to them, of whom tlie second only (George 
Dana) survived the perils of infancy. Mr. Boardman him- 
self became a victim to the climate, and died, February 11, 
1831, She remained at her post, continuing her missionary 
work at Tavoy. 

In April, 1834, she became the second wife of the Rev. 
Adoniram Judson, D.D. She now entered on a career of 
eminent usefulness as the fitting companion of her distin- 
guished husband ; aiding him in his translations of the 
Scriptures, the Pilgrim's Progress, religious tracts, and de- 
votional poetry. She prepared a hymn-book, and several 
volumes of Scripture Questions for Sunday- Schools, and a 
series of Sunday Cards. Eight children were the fruit of 
her second marriage. Early in 1845 she began to exhibit 
symptoms of alarming disorder, and Dr. Judson embarked 
with her and some of their children for the United States. 
On the way, her health declined rapidly, and she breathed 
her last at the island of St. Helena, September 1, 1845. 



JOHN KEBLE. 

1792-1866. 

The Rev. Johit Keble, the well-known author of " The 
Christian Year," was the second child and elder son of the 
Rev. John Keble, Vicar (1782-1834) of Coin' St. Aldwyn's, 
Gloucestershire, England, where he resided on his own es- 
tate, and where the son was born, April 25, 1792, Having 
been thoroughly prepared under his father's instruction, 
the boy entered Corpus Christ! College, Oxford, on a Schol- 
arship, 1806, and graduated (double first class), B.A., 1810, 



358 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

and M.A., 1813, He was chosen, April, 1811, Probation 
Fellow of Oriel College. In 1812, he took the Chancellor's 
prize for an English Essay, on " Translation from the Dead 
Languages "; also, the prize for a Latin Essay, on " A Com- 
parison of Xenophon and Julius Caesar as Military Histo- 
rians" of their own "campaigns." He was appointed, in 
181 4, Examining Master for three years. 

He was ordained, by the Bishop of Oxford, a deacon. Trin- 
ity Sunday, 1815, and priest. Trinity Sunday, 1816. At his 
first ordination he entered on the Curacy of East Leach and 
BurthoriDe, two hamlets near Fairford. At the end of three 
years he accei^ted (1818) a Tutorship in Oriel College, and 
continued there five years ; when, his mother having died, 
he returned to his Curacy that had been temporarily served 
by his brother, Thomas, and to which the hamlet of South- 
rop was now annexed. The newly-appointed Bishop of 
Barbados, William Hart Coleridge, offered him, in 1824, 
an Archdeaconship, with a salary of £2,000, but family rea- 
sons constrained him to decline the offer. The following 
year, at the instance of Sir William Heathcote, one of his 
pupils, he was appointed the Curate of Hursley, near Win- 
chester, Hampshire. The sudden death of a dearly-beloved 
sister, in September, 1826, brought him back to Fairford, 
and he became his father's Curate. 

For many years, he had been at work on " The Christian 
Year." Some of the lyrics had obtained circulation, in 
manuscript, among his personal friends. The work had 
been subjected to the criticisms of the Rev. Drs. Whately 
and Arnold, among others, and had undergone frequent 
revision and polishing. He, at first, intended to continue 
this process through life ; but, at the urgent solicitations 
of friends, he arranged the hymns in the order of the Fes- 
tivals and Fasts, or Holy Seasons, of the Cliurch, and pub- 
lished the book anonymously, in 1827, with the title, — " The 
Christian Year : Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and 
Holydays throughout the Year. " 

To the liturgy-loving people of the Church of England, 
the work was a benison of peculiar value. It met with a 



JOHN KEBLE. 359 

rapid sale. Edition after edition followed in quick succes- 
sion. It became a household book of sacred verse, and took 
its place by the side of "The Book of Common Prayer." 
Editions were multiplied also in America. In the line of 
sacred lyrics from the pen of a single author, it has been 
the greatest success of the century. Keble lived to revise 
for the press the ninety-sixth Britisli edition. It is still 
among the most saleable books of the kind — having never 
been superseded. 

His election as Professor of Poetry in Oxford University 
followed in 1831, as a matter of course. By appointment 
of the Vice-Chancellor, he delivered, July 14, 1833, the 
Summer Assize Sermon, which was published with the 
title, — "JSTational Apostasy." It was a vigorous protest 
against the Suppression of the Irish Sees. " I have ever 
considered and kept the day," says John Henry New- 
man, "as the start of the religious Movement of 1833." 
Newman regarded Keble as " the true and primary author 
of that Movement afterwards called Tractarian." Early in 
the autumn of 1833, he held frequent conferences, at Oriel 
College, with Newman, Froude, and Percival, in respect to 
measures for reviving the ecclesiastical spirit of the Church. 
An Association was formed, an Address issued, and the 
IDublication of a series of cheaj) and popular Tracts — after- 
wards widely known as "Tracts for the Times" — under- 
taken. Of these Tracts, Keble wrote Nos. 4, 13, 40, 52, 54, 
57, 60, 89. To the new " Movement," he gave, as an origi- 
nator and leader, the whole weight of his character and in- 
fluence. 

On the death of his father, January 24, 1835, he succeeded 
to the Yicarage ; and, October 10, at Bisley, near Fairford, 
he married Charlotte, the youngest daughter of the Rev. 
George Clarke, deceased,— the sister of his brother's wife. 
This living was exchanged, March, 1836, for the Vicarage of 
Hursley, Hampshire, to which he was presented by Sir 
William Heathcote. His Visitation Sermon, the next 
autumn, in the Cathedral at Wincliester, excited a great 
commotion among the clergy present. Many of them re- 



360 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

garded Mm as "almost a Papist." The sermon was pub- 
lished with the title, — " Primitive Tradition recognized in 
Holy Scripture." A reply was issued by the Rev, Dr 
William Wilson, and the positions of the Sermon were 
successfully as well as elaborately controverted by the Rev. 
William Goode, in his " Divine Rule of Faith and Prac- 
tice." The same year, Keble published a new edition of 
Hooker's works, with a labored " Preface," in favor of the 
controverted doctrines and usages. At the close of the 
year, the " Lyra Apostolica " was reprinted from the Brit- 
isli Magazine, Keble having been one of the seven con- 
tributors. Tlie following year (1838), he united with Drs. 
Newman and Pusey in editing the " Library of the Fathers." 

His next imjjortant production was " The Psalter, or 
Psalms of David ; in English Verse," — a new version, on 
which he had been at work, for years, with the hope of 
supplanting both "The Old" and "The New Versions." 
It proved a complete failure. His Professorship terminated 
in 1841 ; and, three years later, he published his " Pr^elec- 
tiones Academic^K," in two volumes. His " Lyra Innocen- 
tium " followed in 1846 ; " Sermons, Academical and Occa- 
sional," in 1847 ; " A Very Few Plain Thoughts on the pro- 
posed addition of Dissenters to the University of Oxford," 
in 1854 ; two pamphlets on " the Eucharist," in 1857 and 
1858 ; and "The Life of Tliomas Wilson, D.D., Lord Bishop 
of Sodor and Man," in 1863. He contributed, in early life, 
an admirable article on " Sacred Poetry," to the 32d volume 
of the London Quarterly Reinew. 

He yielded at length to disease, being smitten with par- 
alysis, November 80, 1864. He survived until March 29, 
1866, when he died at Bournemouth, in his seventy-fourth 
year. Mrs. Keble, who had been a great sufferer from her 
youth, followed him to the world of spirits, on the 11th of 
the next May. 

The following Seed Time Hymn was contributed (1857) 
to the " Salisbury Hymnal ": 

" Lord! in thy name thy servants plead, 
And thou hast sworn to hear ; 



GEORGE KEITH. 361 

Thine is the harvest, thine the seed, 
The fresh and fading year. 

■ Our hope, when autumn winds blew wild, 
We trusted. Lord ! with thee ; 
And, now that spi-ing has on us smiled, 
We wait on thy decree. 

' The former and the latter rain, 
The summer sun and air, 
The gi-een ear, and the golden grain, 
All thine, are ours by prayer. 

' Thine too by right, and ours by grace. 
The wondi'ous growth xmseen, 
The hopes that soothe, the fears 'that brace, 
The love that shines serene. 

' So grant the precious things brought forth 
By sun and moon below, 
That thee, in thy new heaven and earth. 
We never may forego." 



GEORGE KEITH. 

The very familiar and popular hymn, beginning 

" How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord! " 

with two others from the same hand, was contributed (1787) 
to " A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors," com- 
piled by John Rippon, D.D. The authorship was desig- 
nated simply by " K ." In later editions of the " Selec- 
tion," published after Dr. Rippon's decease, this hymn is 
attributed to "Kirkham." A Collection of hymns by 
Thomas Kirkham was published in 1788, but this hymn is 
not among them. It has been conjectured, but not ascer- 
tained, that this hymn, and the two others thus designated, 
were written by Mr. George Keith, for many years a pub- 
lisher and bookseller in Gracechurch Street, London, who 



362 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

married a daughter of tlie Rev. Dr. Rippon, and officiated 

as clerk in his place of worship. It is reported, that he 

was accustomed occasionally to compose hymns suggested 

by Dr. Rippon's sermons. The other two hymns begin 

with, 

" In songs of sublime adoration and praise," 

and 

" The Bible is justly esteemed,"— 

both first published in Dr. Rippon's Selection. 



THOMAS KELLY. 

1769-1855. 

Mpw Kelly was the only son of the Rt. Hon. Chief 
Baron Kelly, one of the Royal Judges. He was born, July 
13, 1769, at Kellyville, near Athy, Queens County, Ireland. 
His youth was passed in the midst of affluence, and he was 
favored with the very best advantages of social and intel- 
lectual training. He pursued a preparatory course of 
education at the schools of Port Arlington and Kilkenny. 
He completed his education at the University of Dublin, 
graduating with distinction. 

He now entered, as a student of law, at the Temple, Lon- 
don, and was a welcome visitor at Edmund Burke's. He 
had, from an early age, been seriously inclined, and, but 
for his father's wishes, would have sought the ministry. 
The perusal of one of the excellent works of the evangeli- 
cal Romaine led him to consider his ways, and to be a 
Christian indeed. He renounced the world, relinquished 
the law, and consecrated himself to the service of his 
Master. He took orders early in 1792, with three others 
of his University associates of similar views, — John 
Walker, Henry Maturin, and Walter Shirley (a son of the 
Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley), all of whom became useful 



THOMAS KELLY. 363 

ministers of the GospeL Mr. Kelly's change was a great 
disappointment and mortification to his parents and kin- 
dred. Evangelical religion had but few followers and 
advocates, at that time, among the gentry and aristocracy 
of Ireland. 

French infidelity had cast its blight over the land. The 
heart-searching doctrines of the Gospel were seldom j)ro- 
claimed from the pulpits of the Established Church. Kelly 
and his three young brethren began their ministry in Dub- 
lin, but were regarded by the clergy with suspicion. They 
obtained the Sunday afternoon service at St. Luke's, and 
their preaching drew a crowd, to the displeasure of the rec- 
tor, who soon stopped it. They were permitted to conduct 
the Sunday morning service at Irishtown ; but Dr. Fowler, 
the ArchbishoiD of Dublin, closed the pulpits of his diocese 
against them. They now betook themselves to Lady Hunt- 
ingdon's Chapels, Plunket Street, and Bethesda, in the 
vicinity of Rutland and Mountjoy Squares. Alderman 
Hutton, also, opened his house, Luson Street, near St. 
Stephen's Green, for Friday evening worship, and Mr. 
Kelly took charge of the service. He preached, also, 
at Blackrock. Such was his entrance on a ministerial 
career, of great labor and service, protracted to extreme 
old age. 

He married, in 1800, Miss Tighe, of Rosanna, County 
Wiclvlow, whose mother was the only child of Sir William 
and Lady Betty Fownes, and inherited their large fortune 
and estates. At his father's death, Mr. Kelly, also, came 
into possession of ample wealth. But all his possessions 
he held in trust for his divine Redeemer. He erected a 
chapel at Blackrock ; another at Athy, the place of his 
family residence ; another at Port Arlington ; another at 
Wexford ; and another at Waterford. These chapels were 
supplied by godly ministers sent by the Haldanes of Scot- 
land. Disowned by the rulers of the Established Church, 
he pursued his work independently; and, eventually, 
through conviction, became an avowed Dissenter. His 
chapels and preachers were classified as of "The Rev. 



364 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Thomas Kelly's Connection." His winters were spent at 
Dublin, and his summers at Athy, in both places as a pas- 
tor. But his labors were widely extended. He delighted 
in the work, and embraced frequent opportunities to preach 
the Gospel in all the surrounding region. 

He took a most lively interest in the spread of the Gos- 
pel ttbroad, as well as at home, especially in the work of 
the London Missionary Society. He was a most diligent 
and laborious servant of Christ. His varied and extensive 
learning was employed without pedantry, and with unaf- 
fected humility, in the advancement of his Master's cause. 
His preaching was thoroughly evangelical, and was char- 
acterized "by surprising variety, depth, and richness of 
thought, accompanied by the unction of genuine piety." 

He was a poet and musician, as well as a theologian. He 
wrote hymns, and composed the music for their proper ex- 
pression. He published (1804) a volume of 96 original 
"Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture." His third 
edition (1809) contained 304 hymns ; the fifth (1820), 433 
hymns ; the sixth (1839), 503 hymns ; and the seventh 
(1853), 765 hymns — all original. The hymns and tunes 
composed for them were, also, published together, as 
" Kelly's Hymns set to Music by the Author." 

He published but little else. His " Andrew Dunn " was 
written for the " Religious Tract Society," and is an admi- 
rable specimen of controversy against Romanism. He 
wrote for a Dublin periodical a short series of articles, con- 
taining incidents in his early life, and entitled, " Reminis- 
cences of the Church." He issued in pamphlet form a few 
"Thoughts on Imputed Righteousness," and three other 
pamphlets, at various times, in reply to Canon Stowell, 
Archbishop AA^hately, and another clerical writer. 

He continued in the exercise of his ministry until Octo- 
ber, 1854, when, while preaching to his people in Dublin, 
he had a slight stroke of paralysis, from which he recov- 
ered, though with an evident loss of vigor. In the follow- 
ing spring, an alarming illness supervened, which he bore 
with great meekness and resignation. He died, May 14, 
1855, in his eighty-sixth year. 



EICHARD KEMPENFELT. 365- 

The following stanzas are from a liymn suggested by 
Gal. vi. 14: 

'' Ground of my hoi^e, the cross appears! 
I see the ' man of sorrows ' bleed ; 
I bid adieu to guilty fears, 

And in Ijis death my pardon read. 

"And couldst thou, O my Savi9ur! die 
To rescue me from endless woe? 
Enough : there's none more blessed than I, 
Since thou couldst love a sinner so. 

"I leave the world — its boasted store 
Of pleasures that must quickly end ; 
I prize its vanities no more, 

Since I have found the sinner's Friend." 



RICHARD KEMPENFELT. 

1718-1782. 

The beautiful lyric, written by Richard Kempenfelt in 

1777, 

" Bvu-st, ye emerald gates! and bring," etc., 

seems to have been a premonition and a prophecy of the 
blissful translation of its author to the better land. Cow- 
per tells the tale in his memorable " Dirge for the Royal 
George^\' 

" Toll for the brave !— the brave that are no more ! 
All sunk beneath the wave, fast by their native shore I 
Eight hundred of the brave, whose courage well was tried, 
Had made the vessel keel, and laid her on her side; 
A land breeze shook the shrouds, and she was overset; 
Down went the Royal George, with all her crew complete! 

" Toll for the brave ! brave Kempenfelt is gone ! 
His last sea-fight is fought, his work of glory done: 



366 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

It was not in the battle ; no tempest gave the shock ; 

She sprang no fatal leak, she ran upon no rock ; 

His sword was in his sheath, his fingers held the pen 

When Kempenfelt went down with twice four hundred men ! 

' ' Weigh the vessel up, once dreaded by our foes. 
And mingle with our cup the tear that England owes; 
Her timbers yet are sound, and she may float agam, 
Full charged with England's thunder, and plough the distant main: 
But Kempenfelt is gone, his victories are o'er, 
And he and his eight hundred men shall plough the wave no more ! " 

After varied service, the Royal George, in Marcli, 1782, 
sailed for Brest to keep watch, of the enemy, returning to 
Spithead, Portsmouth, the next August. Kempenfelt was 
the second in command. The vessel had sprung a leak and 
was otherwise foul. In order to inspection, she was ca- 
reened on the 29th of August. The crew and some hun- 
dreds of their wives and children were on board. Kempen- 
felt was at work with his pen in the cabin. A land-squall 
struck the great hulk ; she fell completely over ; the sea 
rushed in at the open ports ; she filled and sunk. The res- 
cued numbered about three hundred; the lost — among them 
KemiDenfelt— about eight hundred. The land was filled 
with mourning. 

Admiral Kempenfelt was the son of a Swede (the original 
of the " Captain Sentry " of The Spectator), who entered 
the British Service, and died in the time of George I. , leav- 
ing two sons and two daughters. Richard was born in 
October, 1718. He obtained, January 14, 1741, a Lieuten- 
ant's Commission in the British Navy ; was made Master 
and Commander, in 1756 ; and was promoted, January 17, 
1757, to a Captaincy. In the bloody battles of the East 
India Seas (1758-1759), he distinguished himself as the 
Captain of the flagship of Admiral Stevens. He took an 
active part, also (1762), in the capture of Manilla by Sir 
William Draper ; was made Governor of Porte Cavite, and 
then sent home as bearer of dispatches. In 1779-1780, he 
held the position of Admiral's Captain of the Grand Fleet. 
Promoted to an Admiral's post, he was (December, 1780) 



RICHARD KEMPENFELT. Sdl 

put in command of twelve sail of the line, with which he 
cut off twelve sail of French shii^s, escorted by twenty-two 
sail of the line— winning a signal victory. 

He was not less a Christian than a sailor. As an humble 
and devout soldier of the cross he was known and honored 
in the Royal Navy. He was an admirer of Whitefield and 
the Wesleys. One of his hymns celebrates a field-preach- 
ing occasion in Cornwall, when fifteen thousand were 
thought to be present (September 14, 1766). His hymns, 
nine in number, were written mostly in early life. They 
appeared in a small tract,— as " Original Hymns and Poems. 
By Philotheorus. Exeter: 1777"; dedicated, as juvenile 
efforts, "to the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in 
Shropshire." Possibly Fletcher may have been his spirit- 
ual father. This tractate has been reprinted, with a brief 
Preface, by Mr. Daniel Sedgwick, of London. 

The following stanzas are from the hymn alluded to in 
the preceding paragraph, and exhibit no little poetic skill 
and taste : 

" See how the colored vestments mingling please, 
And form a garland beautiful and gay ; 
Which twice ten thousand eyes survey at ease, 
Each one conspiring in the august display. 

" The flame of prayer kindles through the throng, 
And ardent praises stream for sins forgiven ; 
Hark ! now they all united raise the song, 
In peals of sacred melody to heaven. 

" The female notes ascend the echoing vale. 
Shrill as the matLii carols of the thrush. 
Or modulating as the nightingale, 
When the loud clamor of the day is hushed. 

"Steal, ye soft notes ! to every sinner's soul, 
Harmoniously allure the ruffian crowd. 
Soften the rude ideas as ye roll, 
And pierce the adamantine of the proud. " 



368 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

JOHN KEMPTHORNE. 

1775-1838. 

The Rev. Johi^ Kempthorne was a native of Plymoutli, 
England, and was born, June 24, 1775. He was the son of 
James Kempthorne, who, on the first day of the present 
century, was created an Admiral of the British Navy. He 
was liberally educated, entering St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge, in 1792, and graduating, A.B., in 1796, and A.M., 
in 1799. He Avas, also, chosen a Fellow of St. John's, and, 
in 1807, took the degree of B.D. He served, several years 
prior to 1816, as Curate of Claybrook, Leicestershire. 

His first preferment was, in 1816, to the Vicarage of 
Northleach, Gloucestershire ; to which were added : in 
1819, the Vicarage of Preston, Gloucestershire ; in 1827, 
the Vicarage of Wedmore, Somersetshire ; and, the same 
year, the Rectory of St. Michael's with the Chaplaincy of 
St. Mary de Grace, Gloucester. He was made, in 1826, a 
Prebendary of Lichfield. He occupied, also, for many 
years the position of Examining Chaplain to the Lord 
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. 

He published, in 1816, " The Pastor's Parting Appeal, Ex- 
hortations, and Benedictions : a Farewell Sermon, preached 
in the Parish Church of Claybrook, Leicestershire, on Sun- 
day, June 16, 1816"; and, in 1835, "The Church's Self- 
Regulating Privilege, a National Safeguard in Respect to 
real Church-Reform ; or, Reasons for reviving Convoca- 
tions, or restoring Provincial and Diocesan Synods." 

In 1809, he published a volume of " Hymns for the Found- 
ling Hospital"; and, in 1810, Select Portions of Psalms, 
from various Translations and Paraphrases ; and " Hymns, 
from various Authors : many of them consideralily Altered, 
in order to fit them for the Use of Congregations in the 
Church of England ; and the Whole arranged according 
to her Yearly Seasons." The fifth edition was published 
in 1829. It was dedicated " to the Hon. and Right Rev- 



THOMAS KEN. 369 

erend the Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry." It 
contains 299 Psalms and Hymns intenningled, with a schol- 
arly and able Preface, of fifteen pages, on " The Admissi- 
bility of Hymns, and the supposed exclusive Authority of 
the Old and New Versions. The alterations are frequent 
and considerable. " He says : " The object nearest the Edi- 
tor's heart is the promotion of Congregational Singing." 
The Collection is preceded by an " introductory hymn," the 
first two stanzas of which are as follows : 

" Great God, the Life of all our joys ! 
Whilst now thy name our song employs, 

Thy needful gifts impart ; 
Pure thoughts, to grateful worship given, 
Affections sweet, and fixed on heaven, 

The music of the heart. 

" As in the sacred work we join, 
Thy glory be our whole design, — 

Thy glory, not our own : 
Help us to sing with awe profound ; 
In seLf-ahasing notes to sound 

A Saviour's praise alone." 

He departed this life, at the Kectory of St. Michael's,. 
Gloucester, November 6, 1838, in the sixty-fourth year of 
his age. 



THOMAS KEN. 

1637-1711. 

In confirmation of "the universal popularity of the 
two beautiful hymns for morning and evening, by Bishop 
Kenn," beginning 

" Awake, my soul ! and with the sun," 
" Gloiy to thee, my Gpd! this night," — 

Bishop Heber said, that they were then " more generally 
24 



370 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

sung, by a cottage fire-side, tlian any other compositions 
witli which [he was] acquainted," and that they were, " in 
country parishes, almost universally used." A few years 
later, James Montgomery said : " Bishop Kenn has laid the 
Church of Christ under abiding obligations by his three 
hymns, Morning, Evening, and Midnight. Had he endowed 
three hospitals, he might have been less a benefactor to 
posterity. . . . Tlie well-known doxology, — 

' Praise God from whom all blessings flow,' etc., 

is a masterpiece at once of amplification and compression. " 
No one stanza of English verse has been so often, so uni- 
versally, and so heartily, sang in the worship of God. 

Thomas Ken was a nonjuring bishop of the seventeenth 
century. Born, July, 1637, he came uj)on the scene of act- 
ive life, in the midst of the civil conflict that rent asunder 
the Church and Commonwealth of Great Britain, in the 
days of the Great Protector. His father, Thomas Ken, was 
a barber- surgeon, and an attorney of Furnival's Inn, resid- 
ing at Little Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, where the son 
was born. His mother, Martha Chalkhill, was his father's 
second wife, and he was her younger son. She died when 
he was four years old : and his father, ten years later. 
When he was in his ninth year, his elder sister, Anne, be- 
came the wife of the well-known Izaak Walton, who was 
more than forty years his senior, and became to him, after 
the decease of his parents, a wise and loving guardian and 
counselor. 

At the age of thirteen, he was sent to " Wykeham's 
School near Winchester," then under the v/ardenship of 
that eminent Presbyterian divine. Rev. John Harris, D.D., 
who had just been a member of the Westminster Assembly 
of Divines ; and, of course, had " taken the covenant." 
Having become a superannuate, he left Winchester at 
eighteen, and, in 1656, was entered a student of Hart Hall 
(now Magdalen Hall), Oxford. In 1657, he was admitted 
Probationary Fellow of New College, as a Winchester stu- 
dent. The next year, Cromwell died, and Oxford speedily 



THOMAS KEN. 



371 



relapsed into its former routine, ridding itself, as speedily 
as it dared, of its recent Puritanism. Ken felt the re- 
bonnd, and, whatever might have been the effects of his 
Winchester training, graduated, B.A., May 3, 1661, a thor- 
ough High Churchman. Shortly after, he took orders, and 
became Chaplain to William Lord Maynard, Comptroller 
of his Majesty's household. Maynard had been a sufferer 
for his loyalty, and Ken became, more than ever, under 
such influences, an enemy of Puritanism. 

In 1663, he obtained the Rectory of Little Eaton, Essex. 
Morley, Izaak Walton's bosom-friend, having in 1662 been 
made Bishop of Winchester, a fellowship in Winchester Col- 
lege was given Ken in 1666, and he was, also, made the Bish- 
op's domestic Chaplain,— Walton having become one of the 
household, after his wife's death in 1662. The following 
year. Bishop Morley preferred him to the Rectory of Brix- 
ton, Isle of Wight ; June 1, 1669, he made him a Prebendary 
of the Cathedral at Winchester ; and, shortly after, he gave 
him the Rectory of East Woodhay, Hampshire. All these 
preferments appear to have been given in return for the 
refuge, shelter, and comfort, accorded to Morley by Ken's 
sister Anne, at her cottage near Stafford, in the days of his 
penury and proscription as a loyalist. 

In 1675, Ken compiled and published "A Manual of 
Prayer for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, 
and all other Devout Christians." To the edition of 1700, 
for the first time, his three hymns were appended. The 
same year, being the Pope's Jubilee, he accompanied his 
nephew, young Izaak Walton, to Rome and back, much to 
his prejudice among some of his people, who accused him 
of Papal partialities. In 1679, the Princess of Orange, 
daughter of James, the King's brother, having desired an 
English chaplain to be sent to her at the Hague, Charles 
appointed Ken to the honorable position, having previously 
made him Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. In Sep- 
tember, 1683, he accompanied Lord Dartmouth, as Chap- 
lain of the Fleet, to Tangier. On his return, he remained 
at Winchester, until the death of his great patron, Bishop 



372 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Morley, in October, 1684 ; and, January 25, 1685, lie was 
consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells. Twelve days after- 
wards, February 6th, he stood by the bed of Charles II. , as 
the dissolute monarch breathed his last, giving little heed 
to the Bishop's pious counsel, " though the most in favor 
with him of all the bishops." 

The next three years were given to the spiritual care of 
his diocese, sadly in want of his attention ; and greatly was 
it profited by his godly instructions and faithful labors. 
In May, 1688, he, with six others of the Episcopal bench, 
asked the King to be released from reading the Koyal 
" Declaration for Liberty of Conscience," and, in conse- 
quence, with the other six, suffered a week's imprisonment 
in the Tower. But a greater trial remained. James, his 
Royal Master, was (January 28, 1789) deposed by Parlia- 
ment, and AVilliam and Mary called (February 7tli) to the 
vacant throne. Ken, being, as Burnet says, " a man of 
warm imagination, at the time of the King's first landing, 
declared heartily for him, and advised all the Gentlemen 
that he saw, to go and join with him." But, when called 
to take the oaths, he declined, and eventually (February 1, 
1691) was deprived of his bishopric, as a nonjuror. 

He found a hearty welcome at Longleat, Wiltshire, the 
seat of his devoted friend and fellow-collegian, Lord Wey- 
mouth. At the decease (November 27, 1703) of his succes- 
sor, Dr. Richard Kidder, Queen Anne ofl'ered to restore him 
to the See, and, on his declining it, gave him a pension of 
£200 per annum. For twenty years he continued in his 
retirement, occupied in literary and benevolent pursuits, 
and in the cultivation of personal piety. He died, at Long- 
leat, March 19, 1711, and his remains were buried at Frome. 
He never married. 

Burnet, speaking of his earlier life, says, he was " a man 
of an ascetic course of life, and yet of a very lively temper, 
but too hot and sudden. He had a very edifying way of 
preaching ; but it was more apt to move the passions, than 
to instruct. So that his sermons were rather beautiful 



THOMAS KEN. 373 

tlian solid; yet Ms way in them was very taking. The 
King seemed fond of him ; and by him and Turner (Bishop 
of Ely) the Papists hoped, that great progress might be 
made in gaining or at least deluding the clergy." 

On the other hand, the high-churcli party represent him 
as almost a paragon of piety. The following stanza, the 
first of eleven, addressed to Ken, shows the ordinary esti- 
mate of the bishop by " Churchmen ": 

" Dead to all else, alive to God alone, 

Ken, the confessor meek, abandons power, 
Palace, and mitre, and cathedral throne, 

(A shroud alone reserved), and, in the bower 

Of meditation, hallows every hour 
With orLson, and strews, in life's decline. 

With pale hand, o'er his evening path, thy flower, 
O Poetry ! pouring the lay divine. 
In tributary love, before Jehovah's skrine. " 

Besides his " Manual of Prayers," he published several 
" Sermons " and Letters ; also, " An Exposition of the 
Church Catechism " (1685) ; " Directions for Prayer " 
(1685) ; and " Prayers for the Use of all Persons who 
come to the Bath for Cure" (1692). After his decease, 
appeared (1711) in his name, " Expostulatoria ; or. Com- 
plaints of the Church of England." His poetical works 
were published (1721) in 4 volumes, the only complete edi- 
tion. His poems are none of them of a high order. He is 
known generally only by his two hymns. Morning and 
Evening, and his incomparable doxology, attached to each 
of them. 

It is quite certain that Ken was familiar with the writ- 
ings of Sir Thomas Browne, the well-knowTi author of the 
" Religio Medici." This admirable work appeared in 1642. 
It contains a poetical " Colloquy with God," which has not 
only, as Montgomery remarked in his "Christian Poet" 
(1827), the general ideas of Bishop Ken's Evening Hymn, 
but in many cases the same expressions, rhymes, and turns 
of thought. Sir Thomas' hymn is subjoined, with which 
Ken's may easily be compared : 



374 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 



"a colloquy with god." 

" The nig-ht is come. Like to the day, 
Depart not thou, great God ! away. 
Let not my sins, black as the night, 
Eclipse the lustre of thy light. 
Keep still in my horizon, for to me 
The sun makes not the day, but thee. 

Thou, whose natm'e cannot sleep, 
On my temples sentry keep. 
Gruard me 'gainst those watchful foes, 
Whose eyes are open while mine close. 
Let no dreams my head infest, 
But such as Jacob's temples blest. 
While I do rest, my soul advance, 
Make my sleep a holy trance, 
That I may, my rest being wrought, 
Awake vmto some holy thought. 
And with as active vigor run 
My course, as doth the nimble sun. 

Sleep is a death. Oh ! make me try, 
By sleeping, what it is to die ; 
And as gently lay my head 
On my grave as now my bed. 
Howe'er I rest, great God ! let me 
Awake again, at last, with thee ; 
And, thus assured, behold ! I lie 
Securely, or to wake or die. 
These are my di'owsy days. Li vain 
I do now wake to sleep again. 
Oh ! come, sweet liour ! when I shall never 
Sleep ag-ain, but wake forever ! " 

Ken's Evening Hymn contains eleven stanzas besides the 
doxology. The first stanza of his Morning Hymn is evi- 
dently an outgrowth of Browne's. The three hymns, in 
full, and as written by Ken, are reproduced in Sir Roundell 
Palmer's "Book of Praise." 



WILLIAM KETHE. 375 

WILLIAM KETHE. 

The version of " The Old Hundredth Psalm," beginning 

"All people that on earth do dwell," 

is a general favorite, not only among the strict " Psalm- 
singing " churches of Scotland and Ireland, but with the 
lovers of " Hymns and Spiritual Songs " as well. In the 
year 1561, the Old Psalter appeared mth an addition of 
twenty-five new versions of Psalms, of whicli this of the 
100th Psalm was one. All the twenty-five were attributed 
to "W. K." save this one, to which the initials "T. S." 
(Thomas Sternhold) were prefixed. But Sternhold died 
in 1549, and shortly after, his friend, John Hopkins, pub- 
lished his thirty-seven versions of Psalms, with the title, — 
"All such Psalms of David as Thomas Sternholde, late 
Groome of the King's Majestye's Robes, did in his Lifetime 
drawe into Englyshe Metre." Tliis version of the 100th 
Psalm was not of the number. It is said that another 
edition appeared in 1561, with "W. K." substituted for 
" T. S. " in the case of this Psalm ; as was also done in the 
Scottish Psalter of 1564. The initials "T. S." were not 
again prefixed. The whole of the twenty-five additions of 
1561 should, doubtless, have been credited to " W. K.," as 
appears from the uniformity of their style. 

William Kethe (Kith, Kythe, Keith) was a clergyman, of 
the Reformation party, and of Scotch descent, preaching 
in England during the reign of Edward VI. His earliest 
production extant is a broadside of twenty-two stanzas in 
ballad style, entitled, — 

" Of Misrules contending with Gods Word by name, 
And then of ones judgment that heard of the same." 

It was printed by "Heugli Syngelton dwellynge over- 
agaynst the Stiliardes." It exposes the Papists as the 
promoters of disorder and bad government. The last 
stanza is subjoined : 



376 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

' ' But who shall stand doutiug, when our noble Kynge 
Wyth his faythfuU counsaill perceave shall the thinge, 
But that they wyll shortly mysrule so represse, 
That glad shall the good be to se suche redresse. 
Finis, quod Wyllyam Kethe, 

Dominus mihi adjutor.'''' 

Singleton's first place of business (1553) was — "Tem 
strete, oner agaynste tlie Styliardes, at the sygne of the 
Dobbel-hood." At the death of King Edward, and the 
accession of Queen Mary, Kethe fled to the Continent, and 
found refuge at Frankfort, Germany. While here, the 
Rev. John Plough, another exile, residing at Basil, wrote 
a pamphlet against him. He was with John Knox, in 
1555, at Geneva. During his exile, he wrote a ballad 
against the Papists, to be sung to a then well-known aii^ 
called, "Tie thy mare, Tomboy"; with the title : "A Bal- 
let declaringe the fal of the whore of babylon, intytuled 
Tye thy mare tom boye w' other, and there vnto anexid a 
prologe to the reders." His subscrij)tion to the ballad is 
"William Kj^he." It is followed by "An Exortacion to 
the palmists," which is subscribed, "Wylliam Kith." He 
also wrote " A Seeing Glasse sent to the Nobles and Gen- 
tlemen of England," which was printed by Singleton. 

On the accession of Queen Elizabeth (1558), he returned 
to England, and was subsequently settled over the parish 
of Okeford, Dorsetshire. He served, also, as Chaplain of 
the English forces at Havre, in 1563. A sermon from his 
pen is extant, "made at Blandford Forum" (Dorsetshire) 
17th January, 1571-2. It is afiirmed, that he made several 
contributions to the Scotch Version of the Psalms. His 
baUad of " Misrules " was reprinted by the " Percy Soci- 
ety " in 1840. The days of his birth and death have not 
been ascertained. 



FEANCIS SCOTT KEY. 377 

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY. 
1779-1843. 

Mr. Key, the renowned author of " The Star Spangled 
Banner," was the son of John Ross Key, an officer in the 
American Army of the Revohition, and a descendant of 
some of the earliest settlers of Maryland. At the pater- 
nal home in Frederick Co., Francis was born, August 1, 
1779. He was educated at St. John's College, Annapolis, 
Md., and, after his graduation, studied law in the same 
town, with his uncle, Philip Barton Key. In 1801, he 
commenced the practice of law, at Fredericktown, Md. ; 
but, a few years later, removed to Washington, D. C, and 
became District Attorney for the Territory. He died, Jan- 
uary 11, 1843. He was for many years a devout and exem- 
plary Christian. 

" The Star Spangled Banner," as in the case of every gen- 
uine song, was the outburst of a sensitive heart glowing with 
emotion. Key and his friend. Skinner, had been sent with 
a flag of truce, August 13, 1814, from Baltimore to the Brit- 
ish fleet, at the mouth of the Potomac, to obtain the release 
01 prisoners captured in the expedition against Washing- 
ton. As the enemy were just about to make an attack on 
Baltimore, the truce-boat was detained w^ith the fleet, under 
guard. The bombardment of Fort McHenry, begun in the 
evening, continued through the night. Key and his friends 
awaited the result with the deepest anxiety. Just before 
day, the cannonading ceased, and they paced the deck till 
dawn, eager for the first streak of day to disclose the result. 
With " the dawTi's early light," they caught sight of " the 
broad stripes and bright stars " of the dear old flag still 
floating over the fort. As they now made their way back 
to the city, Key, all aglow wdth the fervor of the moment, 
composed and wrote on the back of a letter this grand Na- 
tional Lyric. The same day it was put in print, and circu- 
lated all over the city. It was wi"itten, and sung then and 



378 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

now, to the tune of " Anacreon in Heaven," The tune liad 
previously been sung to Thomas Paine's Ode, entitled, 
" Adams and Liberty," with the chorus, — 

' ' For ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, 
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves." 

Key's hymn, in seven stanzas, 

"Before the Lord we bow," etc., 

was written for the celebration of the Fourth of July, 1832. 
He also wrote the following sjpiritual song, which has been 
set to appropriate music : 

" If life's pleasures cheer thee. 
Give them not thy heart, 
Lest the gifts ensnare thee 
From thy God to part : 
His praises speak, His favor seek, 
Fix there thy hope's foundation; 
Love him and he Shall ever be 
The Eock of thy salvation. 

" If sorrow e'er befall thee, 
Painful though it be. 
Let not fear appall thee. 
To thy Saviom' flee : 
He, ever near. Thy prayer will hear, 

And calm thy perturbation ; 
The waves of woe Shall ne'er o'erflow 
The Rock of thy salvation. 

" Death shall never harm thee, 
Shrink not from his blow, 
For thy God shall arm thee, 
And victory bestow : 
For death shall brmg To thee no sting, 

The grave no desolation ; 
'T is gain to die. With Jesus nigh, — 
The Rock of thy salvation." 

His " Poems " were published (1857) at Baltimore, T\ith a 
preface by his brother-in-law, Hon. Eoger B. Taney, Chief- 
Justice of the United States. 



WILLIAM KINGSBUEY. 379 

WILLIAM KINGSBURY. 

1744-1818. 

The Eev. William Kingsbuey was born, July 12, 
1744, in Bisliopsgate Street, London. He was pionsly 
trained, and from a child was conscientious and devout. 
At the age of nine years, he was left, with four other 
children, to the care of a widowed mother, with slender 
means of support. He was sent, first, to the Merchant 
Taylors' School, and then, two years later, to Christ's 
Hospital School, for three years. At the age of fifteen 
years, he was admitted to the Mile End Congregational 
Academy, of which the Rev. Drs. Conder, Walker, and 
Gibbons, were then Tutors. After a season of deep convic- 
tion and depression, he was filled (October 7, 1760) with 
"joy and peace in believing." In February, 1762, he was 
admitted to the church of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Gibbons, 
Haberdashers' Hall ; and, in August, 1763, at the age of nine- 
teen, preached his first sermon in the church of the Rev. Dr. 
Walker (another of his Tutors), Bethnal Green. His 
Academic course was completed in June, 1764. 

He had, while a student, supplied the pulpit of the Inde- 
pendent Church at Tooting, Surrey. A few months after 
graduation, he began to supply the pulpit of the Church 
at Southampton (where Isaac Watts began his career), and 
was ordained their pastor, October 8, 176.5. The congrega- 
tion was raised, during his ministry of forty-four years, 
from a very low, depressed state to a healthful, vigorous, 
and prosperous condition. He married, November, 1768, a 
daughter of the Rev. Mordecai Andrews, of London. She 
was taken from him, by death, in 1788. In addition to his 
pastoral work, he opened, by the advice of his dear friend, 
John Howard, the philanthropist, an Academy for young 
gentlemen. In 1787, he declined the offer of the resident 
TutorshiiD of Homerton College. 

Mr. Kingsbury was associated with those excellent cler- 



380 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

gymen, Cardogan, Newton, and Romaine, in the promotion 
of the various evangelical efforts of the day. He intro- 
duced Sunday- School instruction (1786) into Southampton. 
He was one of the earliest advocates, and in 1795 became 
one of the Founders, of the London Missionary Society. 
He was, also, one of the originators and editors of the Lon- 
don Evangelical Magazine^ to the columns of which he 
was an occasional contributor. 

He was associated, during his later years (1800-1809), in 
the pastorate, with the Rev. George Clayton and the Rev. 
Henry Lacy. A paralytic stroke compelled him (July, 
1809) to resign his pastoral charge, and to retire to Caver- 
sham, near Reading, where, in great comfort, he spent his 
remaining days, until his decease, February 18, 1818. His 
second wife had long before become insane. He was, says 
Dr. Morrison, " one of the brightest ornaments of the min- 
isterial character, that has graced the Church of Christ in 
modern times ; — a man of rare and exalted worth, adorned 
by equal strength and refinement of mind, and nobly con- 
secrated to the cause of God and souls ; yet humble to a 
proverb." His only i)ublications, besides his contributions 
to the Evsangelical Magazine, were occasional Sermons, 
and the two hymns, 

"Let us awake our joys," etc., 
" Great Lord of all thy churches I hear," etc., 

which were contributed to DobeU's Selection of hymns 
(1806). 



ANDREW KIPPIS. 

1725-1795. 

Poetry was not Dr. Kippis' forte ; his prose was better 
than his verse. He was of Puritan ancestry, and was 
born, March 28, 1725, at Nottingham, England. His father, 



ANDREW KIPPIS. 381 

Robert, who was a hosier, died in 1730 ; and the fatherless 
child was received into the house of his grandfather, An- 
drew, at Sleaford, Lincolnshire. He was educated at the 
grammar-school of this place ; and, at the age of sixteen, 
was induced by the Rev. Samuel Merivale, the pastor of 
the Independent congregation there, to study for the min- 
istry. He became a pupil of the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, of 
Northampton ; and during his five years' course, rapidly 
advanced in learning. 

His ministerial career began in 1746, when (September) 
he took charge of a Dissenting congregation at Boston, 
Lincolnshire. Four years later, he succeeded the Rev. 
John Mason (author of " Self-Knowledge "), at Dorking, 
Surrey. Then, in June, 1753, he became the successor 
of the Rev. Dr. Hughes, as joastor of the Presbyterian 
Church of Westminster, London, in which position he con- 
tinued to the end of life. He had, early in his course, 
abandoned the Calvinism of his ancestors, and become a 
decided Arian. He devoted himself, during a long life, to 
the promotion o| Literature, Science, and the Arts, as well 
as Morals and Religion. He made frequent contributions 
to the columns of the Gentleman^ s Magazine^ the Moiitlily 
Review, and The Library. His intelligence, refinement, 
and great benevolence of manner, made him a great favor- 
ite in cultivated circles. He was held, everywhere, in high 
respect. 

In addition to his pastorate, he was appointed (1763) Clas- 
sical and Theological Tutor in Coward's Academy, Hoxton, 
London, where he was associated with the Rev. Dr. Abraham 
Rees, a minister of kindred views. The honorary degree 
of D.D. was conferred upon him in June, 1767, Tby the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh. He was, also, chosen (March, 1778) 
a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and (June, 1779) a 
Fellow of the Royal Society. As he could no longer, in 
any sense, be regarded as an orthodox divine, he resigned 
(1784) his Tutorship in Coward's Academy. Yet, to the 
last, he cherished the utmost affection for the memory of 
Dr. Doddridge, wrote a Memoir of his Life, and edited his 
"Lectures." 



382 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

He married (September, 1753), on Ms removal to London. 
Miss Elizabeth Bott, the daughter of a respectable mer- 
chant of Boston, Lincolnshire, and a member of his first 
pastoral charge. He died of a fever, at his home in Lon- 
don, October 8, 1795, in his seventy-first year, universally 
lamented. 

Dr. Kippis was a most diligent and laborious student. 
He wrote and published numerous articles in the Annual 
Registers, Monthly Magazines, and other periodicals, of one 
of which — The Library— \iQ was the editor. He wrote the 
" Life," and edited the " Works " (1788), in eleven volumes, 
of the Rev. Nathaniel Lardner, D.D.; also, as before inti- 
mated (1794), Dr. Doddridge's " Course of Lectures," with 
very extensive and valuable additions, in two volumes. He 
published a volume of his "Sermons on Practical Sub- 
jects," in 1791. He undertook a new edition of the "Bio- 
graphia Britannica," for which he wrote a great many 
valuable articles, but he died in the midst of the work. 
Five folio volumes were published (1778-1793) ending with 
"Fastolff." A section of the 6th volume, from " Featley 
to Foster," had been printed, at the time of his death. He 
was probably the only man who had read the whole of 
" The General Dictionary, Historical and Critical " (Lon- 
don, 1734-1741), ten volumes, folio. Dr. Rees says of him : 
" The natural powers of his mind were cultivated with an 
assiduity and perseverance of application, in which he had 
few superiors, and not many equals." 

In connection with the Rev. Abraham Rees, D.D., Rev. 
Thomas Jervis, and Rev. Thomas Morgan, he compiled, and 
published, a few months only before his death (1795), " A 
Collection of Hymns and Psalms for Public and Private 
Worship." It contained 690 Hymns, much pruned and 
altered, with the names of the Authors, as far as known, 
attached. Previous to this, " the generality of the Presby- 
terian Societies in the Metropolis and its vicinity [had] 
contented themselves solely with Dr. Watts's Psalms." 
A second edition was called for in 1797. The Collection 
" was published with a view to promote just and rational 



LAURENTIUS LAURENTI. 383 

sentiments of religion [in] social worship and private de- 
votion." Two only of tlie hymns were from his own pen. 
The one beginning 

" How rich, thy gifts, almighty King! " 

was written for a " National Tlianksgiving." The theme 
of the other, which is here given, is " The Unknown God ": 

' ' Great God ! in vain man's narrow view 
Attempts to look thy nature through ; 
Our lab'ring powers with reverence own,— 
Thy glories never can be known. 

" Not the high seraph's mighty thought, 
Who countless years his God has sought, 
Such wondi'ous height or depth can find, 
Or fully trace thy boundless mind. 

" Yet, Lord! thy kindness deigns to show 
Enough for mortal minds to know ; 
While wisdom, goodness, power divine, 
Through all thy works and conduct shine. 

" Oh! may our souls with rapture trace 
Thy works of nature and of grace, 
Explore thy sacred name, and still 
Press on to know and do thy will." 



LAURENTIUS LAURENTI. 

1660-1722. 
The author of the hymn beginning 

" Ermuntert euch, ihr Frommen," 
("Eejoice, all ye believers ! "—Tr. Miss J. Borthwick.) 

was born, June 8, 1660, at Husum, in the Duchy of Hol- 
stein. His father was an ardent lover of music, and edu- 



384 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

cated his son, who inherited his tastes, for the musical pro- 
fession. After a thorough training at Kiel, the son was, in 
1684, appointed Precentor and Director of the Choir, at the 
cathedral church of Bremen. He published, in 1700, at 
Bremen, his " Evangelia Melodica," consisting of 148 spir- 
itual songs and hymns, arranged according to the different 
gospels for Sundays and holy days, and adapted to known 
melodies. His hymns are of the pietist school, and are re- 
plete with spiritual fervor, though written with great sim- 
plicity. He died at Bremen, May 29, 1722. 



RICHARD LEE. 
The eucharistic hymn, 

"When I view my Saviour bleeding," etc., 

is the iDroduct of " a laborious mechanic." It appeared in 
" Flowers from Sharon ; or. Original Poems on Divine Sub- 
jects. By Richard Lee. 12mo, 173 pages"; published at 
London, 1794. These " Flowers," with one or two excep- 
tions, were produced, when the author was but a boy, 
"between the years of fifteen and nineteen." Several of 
them were contributed to the Evangelical Magazine, Yols. 
I. and II., for 1793 and 1794, and were published with the 
signature — "Ebenezer." Mr. Lee, at that time, resided at 
Leicester Fields, London. In Colburn's Biographical Dic- 
tionary of Living Authors (1816), he is called, " a political 
and religious fanatic." In his " Preface," Lee says : " It is 
not from a vain siipposition of their iDoetical merit that the 
ensuing sheets are offered to the public ; but from a con- 
viction of the divine truths they contain,— truths which, I 
own, fallen and depraved reason will always stumble at, 
and which the unregenerate heart will never cordially re- 
ceive ; but which the Christian embraces, and holds fast as 
his chief treasure." The hymns exhibit not a little poet- 



JANE E. LEESON. 335 

ical skill, and are written in a devout spirit. They are the 
product of a thoroughly orthodox mind. His " Song of 
Praise to the Trinity," which is subjoined, has been exten- 
sively used as a Doxology : 

"To God, who chose us in his Son, 
Ere time its coui'se began ; 
To Christ, who left his radiant throne, 

And died for wretched man ; 
To God, the Spixit, who appHes 
The Lamb's atoning sacrifice ; 

" To the eternal, equal Three, 

The undivided One, 
Let saints and angels both agree 

To give the praise alone ; 
In earth, in heaven, by all adored, 
The holy, holy, holy Lord." 



JANE E. LEESOK 

Mrss Leeson is an English lady, the particulars of whose 
personal history have not transpired. She is, undoubtedly, 
attaclied to the Church of England, and in sympathy with 
the High Church party. Her publications bear the impri- 
matur of " Burns," or " Masters," London, and are favora- 
bly noticed in The Christian Remembrancer. 

Her first publication appears to have been, " Hymns and 
Scenes of Childhood; or, A Sponsor's Gift," the third edition 
of which was published by " Bums, London," and " Dearden, 
Nottingham," November, 1842. Her " Lady Ella, or the 
Story of Cinderella," in verse, was issued in April, 1847 ; 
her "Songs of Christian Chivalry," in September, 1848; 
her "Christian Child's Book," in two parts, in October, 
1848 ; also, " The Wreath of Lilies ; a Series of Simple 
Comments for Children, on the Events of our Lord's Life"; 
her " Chapters on Deacons ; being a short Account of the 
25 



386 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

early and other Deacons, compiled to meet tlie awakened 
interest manifested on the subject of the Diaconate," in 
October, 1849 ; " The Ten Commandments Explained, in 
Easy Verse for Children," in November, 1849 ; " The Story 
of a Dream,'' in 1850 ; and " Paraphrases and Hymns for 
Congregational Singing," in 1853. All these were pub- 
lished anonymously, and were designed, the most of them, 
for children. 

The hymn beginning 

" O Holy Spirit, Fount of love," 

is a translation of Charles Coffin's Breviary hymn, " O Fons 
amoris ! " etc., and was contributed, with several others, by 
Miss Leeson, to "Hymns for the Use of the Churches," 
published in 1864. 



WILLIAM FREEMAN LLOYD. 

1791-1853. 

Mr. Lloyd was the well-known Secretary of the London 
Sunday- School Union. He was the son of pious parents, 
who died in his younger days, and who resided in the vil- 
lage of Uley, Gloucestershire, England, where he was born, 
December 22, 1791. Early in life he devoted himself to the 
cause of Christ, and at fifteen years of age was a Sunday- 
School Teacher at Oxford, where he then resided. Soon 
after, he removed to London, and in 1810, not yet twenty 
years old, he became one of the Secretaries of the Sunday- 
School Union. In 1816, he was chosen one of the Commit- 
tee of the Religious Tract Society, serving both Societies 
for several years. 

He originated the Sunday-Scliool Teacliers' Magazine^ 
and edited, for years, the ChUcVs Comfpanion and the Week- 
ly Visitor. In his official positions, he was called to edit, 
also, many of the publications of the two Societies, of 



MARTIN LUTHER. 387 

wliicli, several books and tracts were from his own pen. 
He was also mucli occupied with compilations and revi- 
sions. He completely identified himself with the Sunday- 
School cause, and was greatly esteemed and honored by the 
religious circles of the metropolis and elsewhere in Great 
Britain. He was a brother of the Rev. Samuel Lloyd, 
Vicar of Horsley, Gloucestershire, at whose house, Stanley 
Hall, to which he had retired on the loss of his health, he 
died, April 22, 1853, in the sixty-second year of his age. 
He published, in 1835, " Thoughts in Rhyme." His poetry 
is, for the most part, quite commonplace. 



MARTIN LUTHER. 

1483-1546. 

It is not without reason, that Heinrich Heine called the 
grand old hymn, 

" Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," 
["A mighty Fortress is our God."— Tr. T. Carlyle.] 

" The Marseillaise of the Reformation." It was the battle- 
song of the Church militant, going forth " conquering and 
to conquer," in its terrific conflict with the hierarchy of 
Rome. The date of its composition has not been fully de- 
termined. Merle d'Aubigne assigns it to the 3d of April, 
1530, when Luther and his coadjutors were setting out for 
the Diet of Augsburg. But, in refutation of this theory, 
it is only needful to observe, that it was printed in Joseph 
King's hymn-book that appeared in 1529. It is, therefore, 
affirmed by Kiibler ("Historical Notes," 1865), that th- 
probable date of its composition was April 19, 1529, the day 
on which the famous Protest, which gave the name " Prot- 
estants" to the Reformers, was presented to the Diet of 
Spires. The earliest date that has been plausibly sug- 



388 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

gested is ISTovember 1, 1527. Eitlier then, or witMn eight- 
een months of that time, it sprang forth from the glowing 
heart of the Great Reformer, 

Sacred song was one of the most efficient weapons used 
by Luther and his friends in the prosecution of their 
great work of Reform. Jerome, in the fourth century, 
had written : " One cannot go out into the iields without 
finding the plougher at his hallehijahs and the mower 
at his hymns." And Luther determined on a similar move- 
ment. In his very childhood, he was wont, with at least 
three other boys, to go about among the small villages 
(the four singing in distinct parts), from house to house, 
begging food. And even at Eisenach, years afterwards, he 
was still compelled to beg his bread, singing in a choir, 
from door to door. It was this that attracted the attention 
of Madame Cotta, and furnished him, at her house, a hos- 
pitable home in the days of his penurj^ His fine alto voice 
gave him the position of chorister in the monastery at Er- 
furt ; and thus he was led to cultivate the art of which he 
was passionately fond, and to fit himself for the great work 
of creating, for Germany and the world, a new and most 
effective cultus — the evangelical church song. 

To Spalatin, he wrote : " It is my intention, after the 
example of the prophets and the ancient fathers, to make 
German psalms for the people ; that is, spiritual songs, 
whereby the Word of God may be kept alive among them 
by singing. We seek, therefore, everywhere for poets." 
A poet himself, he wrote thirty-seven hymns, some of them 
being versions of the Psalms ; others, translations of old 
Latin hymns in use among the people ; and others still, 
original compositions. At first they were printed on leaf- 
lets, and scattered far and wide among the people, by whom 
they were eagerly caught up and committed to memory. 

The first hymn-book of the Refonnation was the "Er- 
furter Enchiridion," printed at Erfurt in 1524. It contained 
a considerable part of Luther's hymns. Three others were 
issued within the next six or seven years — compiled re- 
spectively by Johann Walther, Joseph Klug, and Valentin 



MAETIN LUTHER. 389 

Babst. Walther, in 1524, published, in conjunction with 
Luther, the first Chorale Book of the Reformation. The 
hymns in these Collections were properly religious ballads, 
written, many of them, to suit popular melodies, and set, 
in other cases, to simple and telling tunes composed ex- 
pressly for them, of which Luther composed a considerable 
number. 

So popular did these hymns speedily become, that not 
less than " four printers in Erfurt alone," it is said, " were 
entirely occupied in printing and publishing them." They 
were sung everywhere, permeating the public mind with 
the great truths of the Eeformed doctrine, and baifling the 
artifices of the priesthood. Whole villages and towns were 
thus won over to what was called " the new religion," but 
which was, in reality, the old doctrine of the Saviour and 
his Apostles ; " and the roads of Germany, which had so 
lately swarmed with men and women on their way to buy 
indulgences, now echoed to the joyful stanzas of the Re- 
foraiers." 

Audin, the Catholic, in his " Life of Luther," says, that 
Luther's hymns " had prodigious success ; the Latin hymns 
ceased all at once, and, in the divine service, nothing else 
was heard but the harmonious stanzas of the reformer." 
" Luther," said the Catholics, "has done us more harm by 
his songs than by his sermons." Cardinal Thomas-a-Jesu 
wrote, in the sixteenth century : " The interests of Luther 
are furthered, in an extraordinary degree, by the singing 
of his hymns by people of every class, not only in schools 
and churches, but in dwellings and shops, in markets, 
streets, and fields." The Papacy was powerless before this 
great outburst of sacred song. A national hymnology — 
vehement and intensely passionate, richly laden with the 
great truths of the Gospel, expressed in the rugged and 
idiomatic tongue of fatherland, level with the popular 
mind, and adapted to the people's wants— was thus created, 
of which Martin Luther uas confessedly the father and 
founder, and of which his 

" Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," 



390 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

struck the key-note. ISTo other hymnology in the world 
compares with it in its ample stores, in the abundance of 
its productions, and in its exuberant wealth of thought and 
expression. This hymn, born of the great era of the Prot- 
estant Reformation, marks, also, a corresponding era in 
Christian hymnology. 

Martin Luther was the son of John and Margaret 
Luther, and was born at Eisleben, November 10, 1483. 
The next year, his parents removed to Mansfeld, six miles 
to the northwest. His father was a mining peasant, and 
the child was trained among the humblest classes. At 
the age of fourteen, he was sent to the Franciscan school 
at Magdeburg, and the next year (1498) to the Latin school 
at Eisenach. In July, 1501, he was admitted to the Uni- 
versity of Erfurt. He entered the Augustinian monastery, 
in July, 1505 ; and. May 2, 1507, he was ordained to the 
l^riesthood. In the autumn of 1508, he was appointed Pro- 
fessor of Philosophy in the new University of Wittenberg. 
He visited Rome in 1510 ; and, in 1512, took the degree of 
D.D. at Erfurt. In April, 1516, he was made vicar of his 
order in Saxony and Thuringia, and, in this capacity, visited 
extensively the various cloisters of his province. In Sep- 
tember, 1517, he came in collision with Tetzel, on the sub- 
ject of Indulgences, and on Saturday, October 31st, at noon, 
posted, on the door of the Electoral Church at Wittenberg, 
his 95 theses against the iDractice. Thus "The Reforma- 
tion " began. 

Three years later, December 10, 1520, he burned the 
Pope's bull, and so defied Rome. Summoned to the Diet 
at Worms, he made his appearance there, April 17, 1521; and 
on his return was seized. May 4th, and concealed, from his 
foes, in the Castle of Wartburg. The Pope, Leo X., died, 
December 1, 1521, and Luther returned to Wittenberg, March 
7, 1522. He abandoned the cloister in 1524, and married, 
June 13, 1525, Catharine von Bora. In April, 1529, he 
joined in the famous "Protest" before the Diet at Spires ; 
and, April, 1530, in the Protestant Confession, before the 
Augsburg Diet. His friends had now become so numerous, 



HENEY FRANCIS LYTE. 391 

and were so powerful, as to deliver him from all fear of 
Rome. His remaining years were spent at Wittenberg in 
safety and quiet, devoted to the furtherance of the Refor- 
mation, by his numerous writings, and from the pulpit. 
He passed away, in great peace, February 18, 1546, in the 
sixty-third year of his age. 



HENRY FRANCIS LYTE. 

1793-1847. 

Among her purest, choicest, and most gifted lyric poets, 
the Church of Christ will ever delight to number Henry 
Francis Lyte. His contributions to " the service of song in 
the house of the Lord," and in the domestic sanctuary, have 
been numerous and excellent. Could he have known how 
much comfort they would impart to the people of God, and 
how much inspiration to a holy life, he could not have 
written as he did, in his " Declining Days,"— 

" 'Tis the thought that I— 

My lamp so low, my sun so nearly set, 

Have Uved so useless, so unmissed should die : — 
'Tis this I now regret." 

It was not in vain that he gave expression to the high and 
holy aspirations of his gentle and humble s^Dirit, in the fol- 
lowing beautiful stanzas, in the same sweet poem : 

' ' Might my poor lyre but give 
Some simple strain, some spirit-moving lay. 

Some spai'klet of the soul, that still might live 
When I v/as passed to clay, — 

" Might verse of mine inspire 
One virtuous aim, one high resolve impart, — 

Light in one drooi)ing soul a liallowed fire, 
Or bind one broken heart, — 



392 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

" Death would be sweeter then, 
More calm my slumber 'neath the silent sod, 

Might I thus live to bless my fellow-men, 
Or glorify my God." 

Heniy Francis Lyte, thoiigli of English parentage, was 
born, June 1, 1793, at Ednam, near Kelso, Scotland, some- 
times called, "The Poet's Corner of Roxburghshire." His 
father, Capt. Thomas Lyte, was an army officer, and died 
when Henry was an infant. His godly mother, as he him- 
self testifies, trained him in the paths of holiness : 

' ' In early life to thee I was 
Consigned by solemn vow." 

She, too, was taken from him at an early age, and he was 
left with very limited means of support. Through the 
kindness of friends, he was sent, at nine years of age, to a 
school at Protoro, Ireland ; and, in 1812, he was admitted 
to Trinity College, Dublin. A scholarship, obtained the 
next year, and the instruction of a few pupils, with the aid 
of friends, enabled him to prosecute his college course with- 
out serious embarrassment. Thrice he won the prize for 
the best English poetry. His ode " To a Field Flower," — 

"Hail ! lovely hai'binger of Spring," etc., 

was wi'itten, April 27, 1812, and his " Sad Thoughts,"— 

"Yes ! I am calm, am humbled now," etc., 

bears date, 1815, and indicates that he had experienced a 
bitter disaj^pointment in an affair of the heart. 

Abandoning his intention to study medicine, he w^as ad- 
mitted (1815) to' orders in the Episcopal Church. His first 
Curacy, " dreary " enough, w^as at Taghinon, in Ireland. 
Called by a neighboring clergyman to counsel him in pros- 
pect of death, for which he found himself wholly unpre- 
pared, Lyte was led to look into the grounds of his own 
hope, and was convinced that his heart had never been sav- 
ingly renewed. Together they sought and found the Lord. 



HENEY FRANCIS LYTE. 393 

His friend died in great peace, and lie himself lived to serve 
the Lord in newness of spirit, and with his whole heart, as 
never before. ^ 

His own health gave way, and symptoms of consumption 
were developed. A trip to the Continent brought relief. 
On his return, he tried the air of Bristol, and served in two 
or three Curacies successively. In 1817, he received the ap- 
pointment of a lectureship in the chapel of ease, in the 
maritime town of Marazion, just in front of the romantic 
Mount St. Michael, near Penzance. He now became united 
in marriage to Anne, the only daughter of the Eev. W. 
Maxwell, D.D., of Bath. Soon after, he removed to Ly- 
mington. Here he wrote his charming " Tales on the 
Lord's Prayer," published in 1826, and several of his poetic 
effusions ; among the latter, — 

"A few brief moons the babe who slumbers here," etc., 

on the occasion of the burial of his infant child, February, 
1821. 

He next served as Curate of Charlton, Kingsbridge, 
whence he removed to Dittisham. At length (1826) he was 
appointed to the Perpetual Curacy of the District Chapel 
of Lower Brixham, and here, among a sea-faring people 
having but little refinement and education, he spent his 
remaining days, faithfully preaching the Gospel, and labor- 
ing for theii' good. Several of his hymns were written for 
the express benefit of his Sunday and day-schools. 

"Jesus ! I my cross have taken," etc., 

was written not later than 1825, and probably dates back 
to the period of his conversion. It was reproduced in the 
Home Missionary Magazine^ for 1829, in six double stan- 
zas. In 1833, he gave to the world his " Poems, chiefly Re- 
ligious," and the following year his " Spirit of the Psalms," 
mostly original, but some of them only modifications of 
older versions. Many of them have become great favorites. 
To his parochial duties he added the work of teach- 
ing. In 1827, two liberated African youths were com- 



394 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

mitted to his care, to be trained as sclioolmasters and 
catecliists for Sierra Leone. Possessed of an extensive 
library, to which he was continually making valuable ac- 
cessions, he devoted much time to theological research. 
At length his health failed, and he was compelled, in 1842, 
to seek its restoration by travel on the Continent. Again, 
in October, 1844, he was driven to Italy, where he spent the 
winter and following year ; writing there his " Longings 
for Home," his " Thoughts in Weakness," and his " Czar 
in Rome." In 1846, he returned to England, and i3ublished 
the " Poems of Henry Yaughan," to which he prefixed a 
" Memoir. " The next winter was also spent in Italy, the 
spring of 1847 bringing him back to England, greatly de- 
bilitated. He preached, after long silence, to his beloved 
people, September 4, 1847, and administered the Lord's 
SuiDper. The same evening, he placed in the hands of a 
very dear relative, A^dth an air of his own composing, that 
precious relic of his last days on earth, the sweet hymn, — 

"Abide with me ; fast falls the eventide," etc. 

A few weeks after, on his way to Rome, he died at Nice, 
November 20, 1847, in his fifty-fourth year. His remains 
were buried there, in the English cemetery. 

In January, 1850, " The Remains of the late Rev. Henry 
Francis Lyte, A.M., Incumbent of Lower Brixham, Devon- 
shire ; consisting of hitherto unpublished poems, a few 
Sermons, etc. With a brief Prefatory Memoir," appeared 
from the press of the Rivingtons. A volume was issued by 
l". & A. Constable, Edinburgh, 1868, containing the " Mis- 
cellaneous Poems," taken from this publication, and the 
"Poems, chiefiy Religious." The following stanzas are 
taken from his poem on " Evening ": 

" Sweet evenuag hour ! sweet evening hour ! 
That calms the air, and shuts the flower; 
That brings the wild bird to her nest, 
The infant to its mother's breast. 

"Yes, lovely hour! thou art the time 
When feelings flow, and wishes climb ; 



EGBERT STEPHENS McALL. 395 

When timid souls begin to dare, 
And God receives and answers prayer. 

' Who has not felt, that evening's hour 
Draws forth devotion's tenderest power, — 
That guardian spii-its round us stand. 
And God himself seems most at hand ? 

' Let others hail the rising day ; 
I praise it when it fades away, — 
When life assumes a higher tone, 
And God and heaven are all my own." 



EGBERT STEPHENS McALL. 
1792-1838. 

The Rev. Robert Stephejn^s McAll, LL.D., was one of 
the most gifted and eloquent of the Dissenting ministry of 
England, in the early part of this century. He was born 
at Plymouth, August 4, 1792, and was- the eldest son of the 
Rev. Robert McAll, a minister in Lady Huntingdon's Con- 
nection. Soon after the birth of his son, Mr. McAll re- 
moved to Gloucester, and continued there several years ; 
after which he became a resident of St. Ives, Cornwall ; 
and in 1813, he took charge of Zion Chapel, London. 

Robert obtained the rudiments of education at Glouces- 
ter, and the higher branches of learning at Penzance, Fal- 
mouth, and Redruth ; always taking a stand for proficiency 
far above his years. In 1806, he studied at Axminster 
Academy; in 1807, having become a member of his father's 
church, he studied at Harwich; and, in 1808, at Hoxton 
Academy. A part of the following year was spent with 
the Rev. Dr. Wm. Bengo Collyer, at Blackheath Hill, near 
London. Shortly after, he entered the University of Edin- 
burgh, where he devoted himself chiefly to the study of 



396 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

medicine. He completed his literary and medical course 
in 1813, having greatly distinguished himself in all his 
academical pursuits. 

Soon after his graduation, he accepted (1815) a call to 
the chaplaincy of a congregation, worshiping in the Sun- 
day-School rooms of Macclesfield, Cheshire. He married the 
youngest sister of John Whitaker, the principal found- 
er of the mission. Great crowds were attracted by the 
eloquence of the youthful preacher ; and, in 1823, he was 
ordained to the ministry. The next year, St. George's 
Chapel, a commodious edifice, was erected for the use of 
the congregation. At the end of two years he accepted a 
call from the congregation at Mosley Street Chapel, Man- 
chester, and began his ministry there the first Sabbath of 
January, 1827. Here, too, he attracted the multitude, and 
speedily acquired the reputation of being one of the most 
powerful and accomplished preachers among the Independ- 
ents, — maintaining this high position to the last. The 
honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the 
University of Edinburgh. 

In 1836, his health began to decline ; and, early in 1838, 
his disease assumed a threatening aspect, compelling him 
to suspend his labors, and seek relief by change of air. A 
beloved daughter was taken from him by death, and the 
shock unfavorably affected his own case. At the home 
of his attached friend, James Knight Heron, Swinton 
Park, near Manchester, he passed the few last weeks of his 
life, and, full of peace and hope, quietly departed, July 27, 
1838, in his forty-sixth year. 

In 1840, appeared his " Discourses on Special Occasions ; 
with a Sketch of his Life and Character," by the Rev. Dr. 
Ralph Ward] aw ; followed, in 1842, by " Four Addresses to 
the Young," and, in 1843, by a volume of "Sermons, 
preached chiefly at Manchester." He contributed eight 
hymns, written in his youth, to the Collection of Hymns, 
comi)iled, and published in 1812, by his greatly attached 
friend, Rev. Dr. Wm. B. Colly er. The following is the 
fourth of these hymns : 



EOBEET MURRAY McCHEYNE. 397 

" Why shotild the Christian waste in sighs 
The breath which God hath given, 
Whom every passing hour that flies 
Bears onward fast to heaven? 

"Why should he wish for perfect bliss, 
In this dark world forlorn? 
Or seek, amidst the wilderness, 
A rose without a thorn? 

" Why should he grieve and mourn to see 
The wicked prosjier now? 
Their joys are present all, but he 
Has all his griefs below. 

"But let them triumph in their choice 
And think his prospects vain, 
The day of death, which blasts their joys, 
Shall terminate his pain. 

"Our Father God ! be ours the grief 
Which to thy sons belongs ; 
And let us share in their relief, — 
Their everlasting songs." 



ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE. 

1813-1843. 

A career of surpassing loveliness, cut short by disease 
and death, is presented in the Memoir of Robert Murray 
McCheyne, by his devoted friend and admirer, the Rev. 
Andrew A. Bonar. McCheyne was a native of Edinburgh, 
Scotland, and was the youngest child of Adam McCheyne. 
He was born, May 21, 1813 ; and, in October, 1821, entered 
the High School of Edinburgh, where he continued six 
years. In 1827, he wrote a short poem, " Greece, but 
living Greece no more." He entered the University of 
Edinburgh, November, 1827, and distinguished himself in 



398 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

all his classes, gaining, also, tlie prize in the Moral Philoso- 
phy Class for a poem, " On the Covenanters." 

Tlie decease of his elder brother, David, in July, 1831, 
led him " to seek a Brother who can not die," and deter- 
mined him to study for the ministry. In the winter of 
1831, he entered the Divinity Hall, and came nnder the in- 
struction of the Rev. Drs. Chalmers and Welsh, During 
his divinity course, he not only applied himself most dili- 
gently to his studies, but sought, in all possible ways, to 
cultivate his own piety, and to do good to the souls of the 
perishing. Music and poetry were his recreation and 
delight. 

He was licensed to preach, July 1, 1835, by the Presby- 
tery of Annan, and in November became the Assistant of 
the Rev. John Bonar, pastor of Larbert and Dunipace, near 
Stirling. In August, 1836, he was called to the pastorate 
of the new Presbji:erian Church, St. Peter's, Dundee, and 
was ordained, November 24, 1836. His preaching imme- 
diately arrested attention, and soon drew crowds to hear 
him. He became exceedingly popular, and calls from other 
churches were multiplied. But he declined them all, and 
continued steadfast in his w^ork and abundant in labors, 
until he was compelled, by symptoms of alarming disease, 
at the close of 1838, to desist for a season, spending the 
ensuing winter at Edinburgh. 

At the suggestion of the Rev. Dr. Candlish, the General 
Assembly's Committee for the Conversion of the Jews de- 
termined to send a Deputation, on a Mission of Inquiry, to 
Palestine and other eastern countries. McCheyne and his 
friend. Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, were associated with the 
Rev, Drs. Black and Keith. They left their native land 
early in April, 1839, and returned home in the following 
November. McCheyne immediately resumed his parochial 
work, with health improved, but not fully restored. Con- 
jointly with Bonar, he published (May, 1842) the " Narra- 
tive of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews," a third edition 
of which was issued in 1843. His health again began to 
fail in the summer of 1842, and continued feeble through the 



EOBEET MURRAY McOHEYNE. 399 

following winter ; and in March, 1843, lie was seized with 
t\Tphus fever, that resulted in his death, March 25, 1843. 
He had not completed his thirtieth year. 

Short as had been his life, the fruits of his ministry were 
abundant. A large number of souls had been gathered 
into the communion of his own church ; and numbers else- 
where, in Scotland and England, whither he had gone 
preaching the Word, aclaiowledged him as their spiritual 
father. His " Life and Remains " were published in 1844, 
by Rev. Andrew A. Bonar, and seventeen editions were sold 
in three years ; in twenty-two years, 80,000 copies had been 
called for in Great Britain alone. 

The hymn beginning 

" I once was a stranger to grace and to God," 

is thus spoken of in his Memoir: "Mr. McCheyne was 
peculiarly subject to attacks of fever, and by one of these 
was he laid down on a sick-bed on November 15th [1834]. 
However, this attack was of short duration. On the 21st, 
he writes — ' Bless the Lord, O my soul ! and forget not all 
his benefits. Learned more and more of the value of 
Jeliovah Tzid'kenii.'' He had, three days before, written 
his well-known hymn, 

' I once was a stranger,' etc., 

entitled, ' Jehovah Tzidkenu, the Watchword of the Re- 
formers.' It was the fruit of a slight illness which had 
tried his soul, by setting it more immediately in view of 
the judgment seat of Christ ; and the hjann, which he so 
sweetly sung, reveals the sure and solid confidence of his 
soul." The hymn has seven stanzas, in the original. 

McCheyne was accustomed to pour forth his emotions in 
verse, and has left a considerable number of these pious 
effusions behind him. Fourteen of them are jDublished in 
his " Remains," as "Songs of Zion." The following was 
written, at the "Foot of Carmel, June, 1839": 

" Beneath Moriah's rocky side, 
A gentle fountain springs, 



400 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Silent and soft its waters glide, 
Like the peace the Spirit brings. 

" The thirsty Arab stoops to drink 
Of the cool and quiet wave, 
And the thii-sty spirit stops to think 
Of Him who came to save. 

" Siloam is the fountain's name. 

It means ' one sent from God ' ; — 
And thus the holy Saviour's fame 
It gently spreads abroad. 

' ' Oh ! grant that I, like this sweet well, 
May Jesus' image bear, 
And spend my life, my all, to tell 
How full his mercies are." 



MARGARET MACKAY. 

Tlie Christian world is indebted to a tombstone in Dev- 
onshire, England, for the suggestion that led to the pro- 
duction of the sweet and soothing hymn beginning 

" Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep." 

It was written by Mrs. Margaret Mackay, under the influ- 
ence of a quiet scene which she thus describes : 

"'sleeping in JESUS.' 

" This simple inscription is carved on a tombstone in the 
retired rural burying-ground of Pennycross Chaxjel, in 
Devonshire. Distant only a few miles from a bustling and 
crowded seaport town [Plymouth], reached through a suc- 
cession of those lovely green lanes for which Devonshire is 
so remarkable, the quiet aspect of Pennycross comes sooth- 
ingly over the mind. ' Sleeping in Jesus ■ seems in keeping 
with all around." 

The hymn was contributed to " The Amethyst ; or Chris- 



JUDITH [COWPER] MADAN. 401 

tian's Annual for 1832. Edited by Richard Sine, M.D., 
and Robert Kaye Greville, LL.D.," and published by "Oli- 
phant, Edinburgh." 

Very few particulars of Mrs. Mackay's life have been 
obtained. Her father, Captain Robert Mackay, on his 
retirement from active service, settled at Hedgefield, Scot- 
land. She was married to Major William Mackay, of the 
British Army, in 1820. In addition to her occasional con- 
tributions to periodicals, she published : " The Family at 
Heatherdale" (3d ed., 1854); "Sabbath Musings" (1844); 
"The AVycliffites, or England in the Fifteenth Century" 
(1846) ; " Thoughts Redeemed, or Lays of Leisure Hours " 
(1854) ; and " False Appearances, a Tale " (1859). The fol- 
lowing stanzas are from her hymn, "To the Holy Spirit": 

" Glorious Spii'it! from on high, 
Sent to show a Saviour nigh, 
In the darkest hours of night 
Cheer me with thy quenchless Light. 

" By thy holy office led, 
Testify of him who bled ; 
Testify how Jesus slain. 
Rose, revived, and reigns again. 

" Turn the sinner from his sin ; 
Teach him how the crown to win ; 
Bring him to Immanuel's feet ; 
Lead him to the mercy seat. 

" Bid him hear the Shepherd's voice. 
Think of Jesus and rejoice ; 
Daily, though earth's woes increase. 
Thou canst sweetly whisper peace." 



JUDITH [COWPER] MADAN. 

Mrs. Madan" was of a distinguished family. She was 
the daughter of Spencer CowiDer, Judge of the Common 
26 



402 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Pleas, who was the second son of Sir William Cowper, 
Bart., and the brother of William, the first Earl Cowper, 
Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. She had three brothers 
—William, John, and Ashley : William was the Clerk of 
the House of Lords ; John was the Rev. John Cowper, 
D.D., and the father of William Cowper, the poet ; Ash- 
ley's daughter was the wife of Sir Robert Hesketh, Bart., 
— the " Lady Hesketh " with whom her cousin, the poet, 
corresponded so frequently. The daughter of Mrs. Madan 
was married to Major William Cowper, her cousin, the son 
of William, and was the " Mrs. Cowper " of the poet's circle 
of friends. A sister of Mrs. Madan was married to Chief- 
Justice William de Gray, who, in 1780, was created Lord 
Walsingham. 

Judith Cowper very early became distinguished for her 
literary proficiency. She excelled particularly in poetry, 
and frequently indulged in the graceful art. Her " Prog- 
ress of Poetry," published in 1783, is no mean specimen of 
poetic ability. She was married (probably about 1725) to 
Col. Martin Madan. One of her sons, the Rev. Martin Ma- 
dan, of London, is noticed below. Another son, Spencer, 
became, successively. Bishop of Bristol, and Bishop of Pe- 
terborough. 

The hymn beginning 

"In this world of sin and sorrow," 

appeared in the second edition (1763) of her son Martin's 
Collection. It is there entitled, " A Funeral Hymn." 



MARTIN MAD AN. 

1726-1790. 

Maetin Madan was born in 1726, and was the eldest 
son of Col. Martin Madan, of the Guards, and Judith Cow- 



MAETIN MAD AN. 493 

per (see the preceding sketch). He was trained for the law, 
was admitted to the bar, and entered upon the practice of 
his profession with the fairest prospects. At this time, he 
had but little respect for religion and its ministers. Being 
in company one evening, at a coffee-house in London, he 
was commissioned by his gay associates to go and hear 
John Wesley, and to report to them, for their sport, an 
account of the man, his manner, and his discourse. As he 
entered the assembly, Wesley was announcing as his text, 
— " Prepare to meet thy God ! " He was deeply impressed 
at once, and much more as the preacher proceeded with his 
discourse. He returned to the coffee-house, and was prompt- 
ly asked, " Have you taken off the old Methodist ? " He re- 
plied,—" JS'o, gentlemen, but he has taken me off. " He for- 
sook them at once, abandoned his old pursuits of worldly 
pleasure, and eagerly sought to be reconciled to God. 

Madan had married a daughter of Sir Bernard Hale, 
, Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, and his mother- 
in-law was on familiar tenns with Lady Huntingdon, to 
whom he was speedily introduced. He was thus brought 
under the influence of that choice circle of godly ministers 
and others, of which she was the centre. Classically edu- 
cated, and highly gifted as a speaker, he ardently sought 
to serve God in the ministry of the Gospel. This was in 
the summer of 1750. With some difficulty he obtained or- 
dination. His eloquence drew the attention of the popu- 
lace, and crowds flocked to hear him. He " was rather tall 
in stature, and of a robust constitution ; his countenance 
was majestic, open, and engaging, and his looks command- 
ing veneration : his delivery is said to have been peculiarly 
graceful. He preached without notes ; his voice was mu 
sical, well-modulated, full, and powerful ; his language, 
plain, nervous, pleasing, and memorable ; and his argu- 
ments strong, bold, rational, and conclusive." 

Madan was appointed to the Chaplaincy of the Lock Hos- 
pital, London, and, by his interest among the wealthy, 
procured the erection of a chapel adjacent to the hospital, 
where he continued to exercise his ministry to the end of 



404 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

life. By reason of his liigh social position, lie was, also, 
appointed the Chaplain of Lord Apsley, afterwards Earl 
Bathurst, Lord High Chancellor. His services were in 
great demand everywhere throughout the kingdom, 
among the adherents of Lady Huntingdon and her chosen 
preachers. His cousin, William Co^vper, the poet, in a let- 
ter to Madan's sister, Mrs. Major Cowper, acknowledges 
(1763) his obligations to him for counsel in his spiritual 
troubles. 

Madan was passionately devoted to music, and took great 
interest in hymnology. His "Collection of Psalms and 
Hymns " (1760), was well received, and was frequently re- 
published. In this Collection is found the favorite hymn, 

" Now begin the heavenly theme," etc. 

It is of uncertain origin, and it can not be traced farther. 
The authors' names are given to none of the hymns, and it 
is quite probable that some of them were composed by 
himself. At all events, he took such liberties with the 
material in his possession, adding, abridging, and rearrang- 
ing, as well as modifying, in many cases, that the result, 
in some instances, was an essentially new hymn. He issued, 
also, a Tune Book, containing " the Music of the Hymns," 
commonly known as "The Lock Hospital Collection." 
Many of the tunes — Bristol, Castle Street, Denbigh, Halifax, 
Helmsley, Hotham, Huddersfield, Kingston, Leeds, Nant- 
wich, and others — were his own composition. His passion 
for music became a snare to him, causing him, at length, 
to give more attention to it than to the preaching of the 
word. Oratorios were frequently performed, on Sunday 
evenings, in his chapel ; and to such an extent did he carry 
the practice of Sunday concerts, vocal and instrumental, as 
to give great offence to the godly. It is to him that his 
cousin, William Cowper, in his " Progress of Error," Avrit- 
ten in the winter of 1780-1781, refers when he uses the 
following language : 

' ' Occiduus is a pastor of renown ; 
When lie has prayed and preached the Sabbath down, 



EICHARD MANT. 405 

With wire and catgut he concludes the day, 

Quavering and semiquavering care away. 

The full concerto swells upon your ear ; 

All elbows shake. Look in, and you would swear 

The Babylonian tyrant, with a nod. 

Had summoned them to serve his golden god." 

As chaplain of the Lock Hospital, the condition of its 
patients had long excited his attention, and led, finally, to 
the publication (1780) of his " Thelypthora,"— a book that 
gave rise to much controversy. He occupied much of his 
time, the next few years, in the study of the Latin classics ; 
and, in 1789, he published " A New and Literal Translation 
of Juvenal and Persius ; with Copious Explanatory Notes, 
in two volumes." He departed this life, in 1790, in his 
sixty-fifth year. 



EICHARD MANT. 

1776-1848. 

To Southampton, England, the home of Isaac Watts, and 
the birthplace of English hymnology, the church is in- 
debted also for Richard Mant, another sweet singer in 
Israel. He was of a good family. His maternal gra,nd- 
father was the Rev. Joseph Bingham, the eminent antiqua- 
rian, and erudite author of the " Origines Ecclesiastics, 
or The Antiquities of the Christian Church "—found in 
almost every theological library of any extent. His father, 
Richard Mant, D.D., of Trinity College, Oxford, was the 
Rector of All Saints' Church, Southampton, and was, also, 
a respectable author. Of his great excellency his son bore 
eflacient witness in one of his early poems : 

"Thou gavest me being; sweeter far than this, 
Thou gavest me that which makes my being bliss: 
Thou didst to holy thoughts my bosom warm, 
Thou didst my tongue to holy accents form. 



406 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

And teach, in dawning reason's infant days, 

To lisp the voice of prayer, and thanks, and praiae." 

The son was bom, February 12, 1776, and trained in the 
grammar-scliool of whicli his father was the master, nntil, 
at the proper age, he was sent (1789) to the famous Win- 
chester School, and thoroughly fitted for college. He en- 
tered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1793, and graduated, B.A., 
1797, and M.A., 1801. In 1798, he obtained a fellowship 
in Oriel College, and won, in 1799, the Chancellor's prize 
for the best English Essay. He was ordained deacon, in 
1802, by Bishop Brownlow North, at Winchester, and began 
his ministry as his father's Curate. The same year he be- 
gan his successful career as an author, by editing the poet- 
ical works of Thomas Warton, the poet-laureate, and by 
the publication of a poetic tribute to Joseph Warton, — the 
familiar friends of his revered father. 

A continental tour followed ; and, on his return, he was 
ordained priest by Dr. Randolph, Bishop of Oxford, and 
accepted the Curacy of Buriton. He took also a few pupils, 
and, having a small charge, found time for much literary 
work. In 1804, he published, in verse, " The Country Cu- 
rate," and, at the close of the year, married Miss Elizabeth 
Woods, on which occasion he addressed her in a poem, giv- 
ing the reasons of his choice. The consequent loss of his 
fellowship drew from him his "Farewell to Oxford." The 
same year he prepared, for the Christian Knowledge Soci- 
ety, "A Familiar and Easy Guide to the Church Cate- 
chism." Two years later (1806), he published his "Poems, 
in three Parts," and the year following, a volume of " Eight 
Lectures on the Occurrences of the Passion Week"; also, 
" The Slave and other Poems." 

In 1809, he became the Curate of Mr. Legge at Crawley, 
and there wrote his "Puritanism Eevived, in a Series of 
Letters from a Curate to his Rector." At the close of the 
same year, he again became his father's Curate. Early in 
1810, he was preferred to the Vicarage of Coggeshall, Es- 
sex, — the old charge of that famous Puritan, Dr. John Owen, 



RICHAED MANT. 407 

and still abounding in adherents to his faith. It was this 
fact, most probably, that determined him, when appointed 
(1812) to deliver at Oxford the Bampton Lectures for that 
year, to take for his theme, " An Appeal to the Gospel ; 
or, An Inquiry into the Justice of the Charge, alleged by 
Methodists and other Objectors, that the Gospel is not 
Preached by the ]^}"ational Clergy," — a production severely 
criticised by the Cliristian Observer, and several divines of 
the Church of England. Three volumes of " Sermons for 
Parochial and Domestic Use" (1813-1815) followed. He 
became, in 1813, the domestic chaplain. of Dr. Charles Man- 
ners Sutton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and, in 1816, 
was preferred to the handsome living of St. Botolph, Bish- 
opsgate, London, to which was added, in 1818, the Rectory 
of East Horsley. 

While a resident of the metropolis, he was employed, in 
concert with the Rev. Dr. George D'Oyly, under the aus- 
pices of the Archbishop, by the " Society for Promoting 
Christian Knowledge," in preparing and publishing (1814) 
a Family Bible with notes, partly original, and x)artly se- 
lected, principally from the soundest divines of the Church 
of England and Ireland, in 3 vols. " Seven Academical 
Sermons " came forth in 1816, and " The Book of Common 
Prayer, Selected with Notes," in 1820. He was elevated to 
the See of Killaloe and Kilfenora in 1820, and transferred, 
in 1823, to the See of Down and Connor, to which, in 1842, 
the See of Dromore was added, — all in Ireland. 

Early in 1824, he published " The Book of Psalms, in an 
English Metrical Version, founded on the Basis of the Au- 
thorized Bible Translation, and compared with the Original 
Hebrew; with Notes Critical and Illustrative." A valuable 
" Introduction " precedes the Version. The work must 
have cost him much time and labor. It contains some ex- 
cellent versification, but, for popular use, falls far behind 
the Paraphrases and " Imitations " of his townsman Watts. 
The " Notes " exhibit much scholarship, but the work has 
had a very limited circulation. " Biographical Notices of 
the Apostles, Evangelists, and other Saints," followed, in 



408 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH, 

1828, with original Hymns appended to the several chap- 
ters. " The Clergyman's Obligations considered" came out 
in 1830; "The Gospel Miracles, in a Series of Poetical 
Sketches," in 1832 ; " Scriptural Narratives of Passages in 
our Blessed Lord's Life and Ministry," with Hymns, and 
" The Happiness of the Blessed," — also, with Sonnets, in 
1833,— the last, a most popular work ; " The British Months, 
a Poem, in 12 Parts," 2 vols., in 1835; "Ancient Hymns, 
from the Roman Breviary, with Original Hymns," in 1837, 
some of them very beautiful ; and " The Church and her 
Ministrations, in a Series of Discourses," in 1838. His two 
volumes of " The History of the Church of Ireland," a val- 
uable work, appeared in 1839, 1841 ; and his " Primitive 
Christianity Exemplified and Illustrated by the Acts of 
Primitive Christians," followed in 1842. " Horse Ecclesias- 
ticse, the Position of the Church with regard to Eomish 
Error," he published in 1845 ; " Religio Quotidiana ; Daily 
Prayer the Law of Grod's Church, and heretofore the Prac- 
tice of Churchmen," in 1846 ; and " Ferise Anniversarise ; 
Observance of the Church's Holy Days no Symptom of Po- 
pery," two volumes, in 1847. He died, at home, November 
2, 1848. 

Few men have more industriously, and usefully, labored 
in literary productions. A complete list of his " Works " 
occupies nearly four columns of the January Number of 
the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1849. Some of his Poetry 
is of a high order. The following is on " The Death of the 
Righteous": 

" Wouldst thou the Christian's death triumphant die ? 

Live thou the Christian's life. — To fight the fight 

Of God, supported by the Spirit's might, 
And, in the Saviour's name, to tix the eye 
Fast on the prize, and strive for mastery ; — 

To keep the faith's rich jewel, whole and bright ; — 

Such aim accomplished was the heart's delight 
Of dying Paul : such aim be thine to try ; 
So move thou duly on to reach the goal ; 

So may God's Spirit with thine own attest 



JOHN MARRIOTT. 409 

Thy heavenly sonship, and his peace control 

Earth's anxious thoughts. — So, meet to join the blessed, 

His gentle breath shed comfort on thy sotd, 
The pledge and earnest of eternal rest." 



JOHN MARRIOTT. 

1780-1825. 

The Rev. John" Marriott was the youngest son of the 
Rev. R. Marriott, D.D., the patron and incumbent of the 
living of Cottesbach, near Lutterworth, England. There 
the sou was born, in 1780, and obtained his early training. 
At Rugby, he was fitted for college ; and, in 1798, he en- 
tered Christ Church College, Oxford, graduating with hon- 
ors, in 1802. He took orders, in 1803, and served in several 
Curacies. 

He obtained, and held for some years, the position of 
Domestic Chaplain to the Duke of Buccleuch, and Tutor 
of his children. At the instance of the Duke, he was pre- 
sented to the living of Church Lawford, near Rugby, War- 
wickshire. He published a volume of his Sermons in 1818. 
The illness of his wife drove him from Warwickshire, and 
he obtained a Curacy at Broad Clyst, near Exeter, Devon- 
shire. Here, March 31, 1825, he ended his earthly course. 
A volume of his " Sennons " was published (1838) by his 
sons. "They are what sermons should be," "plain and 
practical," "eloquent and touching," and "speak to the 
heart." The only extant specimen of his poetry is the 
hymn beginning 

*' Thou! whose almighty word." 

It was written in 1813, and was contributed by his son to 
Dr. Raffles' "Supplement to Watts" (1853). 



410 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

JOHN MASON. 

1694. 

John Mason was a contemporary of Bunyan and Ba'x- 
tei, Ken and Dryden, Tate and Brady. Of liis nativity no 
particulars are extant. His scliool-days were passed in the 
humble parish of Strixton, ten miles east of Northampton, 
England. He entered Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1660, and 
graduated, A.B., 1664, and A.M., 1668. He first served in 
the ministry as the Curate of the Rev. Mr. Sawyer, in the 
rural parish of Isliam, Northamj^tonshire. Then he was 
presented, October 31, 1668, to the Vicarage of Stanton- 
Bury, Buckinghamshire, where he continued more than 
five years. Several of his " Letters," written here, were 
published with his " Remains," and breathe forth a most 
exalted spirit of piety. 

He was presented, January 28, 1674, to the Rectory of 
Water Stratford, on the upper Ouse, where he continued, 
through the troublous times of that period, most faithfully 
serving God, and cultivating the spirit of holiness in him- 
self and all about him, full twenty years, until his death 
in 1694. 

Living in a dissolute and profane period, he left behind 
him few superiors in things pertaining to God. It is rare 
to find such a character in any age. Religion was both 
his business and pleasure ; it was the atmosphere in and 
by which he lived. He sought to diffuse the same spirit 
all about him, and to make everybody partaker of his joy. 
Richard Baxter called him "the glory of the Church of 
England." His " Select Remains," edited by his grandson, 
Rev. John Mason, can not be read without profit. The 
style is sententious, antithetic, crisp, and solid, with no re- 
dundancy. His poems, while somewhat stiff in their struc- 
ture, and a little harsh in their flow, partake of the style of 
his prose. 

He published, in 1683 :— " Spiritual Songs ; or Songs of 



JOHN MASON. • 411 

Praise to Almighty God, Upon Several Occasions. Together 
with the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's : First Tnrn'd, 
then Paraphrased in English Yerse : With an Addition 
of a Sacred Poem on Dives and Lazarus. To which is 
Added Penitential Cries." The " Songs" are highly spirit- 
ual and devout. 

In his first " Song of Praise," the fourth stanza is admi- 
rable: . 

' ' How great a being, Lord ! is thine, 

Which doth all beings keep ! 
Thy knowledge is the only line 

To sound so vast a deep : 
Thou art a sea without a shore, 

A sun without a sphere, 
Thy time is now and evermore, 

Thy place is everywhere." 

In his " Song of Praise for the Evening," beginning with 

" Now from the altar of my heart, '\ 

occurs this stanza : 

" Man's life 's a book of history, 
The leaves thereof are days, 
The letters mercies closely joined, 
The title is thy praise." 

His twenty-fourth " Song," beginning with 

" My soul doth magnify the Lord," 

has eleven single stanzas in the original, and is a remark- 
able effusion of glowing love and holy joy. The following 
is the first stanza of his second " Song ": 

" What shall I render to my God 

For all his gifts to me? 
Sing, heaven and earth ! rejoice and praise 

His glorious majesty. 
Bright cherubims ! sweet seraphims ! 

Praise him with all your might ; 
Praise, praise him, all ye hosts of heaven ! 

Praise him, ye saints in light ! " 



412 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Mason's book was familiar to Isaac Watts, and gave 
shape to some of his phraseology. Pope and the Wesleys, 
also, show a similar familiarity with this old Puritan. 



WILLIAM MASO]^. 
1719-1791. 

William Mason was born, in 1719, at Rotherhithe, 
then a suburb of London, on the Surrey side. At the age 
of ten, the family removed to Bermondsey, the adjoining 
parish on the west, and nearer the heart of the city. He 
was favored with a good grammar-school education, includ- 
ing the rudiments of the Latin language. At a suitable 
age he was bound ai^prentice to his father, who was a clock- 
maker. In 1740, his father died, leaving to him his busi- 
ness, and the 'care of a mother, sister, and brother. The 
next year, he married Miss Cox. 

Though not religiously trained, he was a constant at- 
tendant of the parish church, conforming outwardly to the 
requirements of a Christian profession. IN'ot finding that 
peace of mind that he desired, he began occasionally to 
attend Wesley's chajjels, greatly to his spiritual advantage. 
He joined one of his societies, and became, also, a class- 
leader. Subsequently, becoming dissatisfied with Wesley's 
doctrine, he attached himself to Whitefield, Mr. Jones of 
Southwark, and Mr. Romaine, retaining his connection 
with the parish church. 

He now began to write, occasionally, for the press. His 
first publication was a pamphlet, entitled, — " Morality not 
Christianity," in opposition to a sermon by the Rev. Mr. 
Wingfield, of Southwark. In 1754, he sent out another 
pamphlet, containing, " Plain Queries, humbly offered to 
the Clergy, with an Expostulatory Addi-ess to the Laity of 
the Church of England, on the Declension of Scriptural 



WILLIAM MASON". 413 

Christianity." Four years later, lie published (1758) " Re- 
marks and Observations on the Morality and Divinity con- 
tained in a Pamphlet by the Rev. Dr. Free"; and, in 1760, 
" Antinomian Heresy exploded," in reply to James Relly's 
"Treatise on Union." To these were added, in subsequent 
years : " Methodism Displayed, and Enthusiasm Detected "; 
"Tlie Scripture Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness"; and 
several small books for children. 

His principal work, by which he is best known, is " A 
Spiritual Treasury for the Children of God," in two vol- 
umes, one for the morning, the other for the evening. " An 
affectionate Address to Passionate Professors," was pub- 
lished in 1774. ' ' The Christian Communicant " was designed 
as " A suitable Companion to the Lord's Supper." "The 
Believer's Pocket ComjDanion " was very favorably received. 
In 1778, he published " The Christian Companion for the 
Sabbath," in two volumes. His other works were : " Crumbs 
from the Master's Table"; " Manual of Piety "; and " Help 
to Family and Private Devotion." 

He succeeded the Rev. A. M. Toplady (1777) as the editor 
of Tlie Gospel Magazine, which he conducted for several 
years, and in which he first published his " Notes on Bun- 
yan's Pilgrim's Progress." 

He was long known as a Justice of the Peace, and, in 
1783, was appointed an acting Magistrate, having, the same 
year, retired from business. Four years afterwards (1787), 
he had a slight stroke of paralysis, and a more severe 
one in 1789, from both of which he recovered. A third, 
Sex)tember 29, 1791, terminated his life the same day, at 
the age of seventy-two years. His only son, the Rev. 
Henry Cox Mason, had, for twelve years, been the Morn- 
ing Preacher and Lecturer of St. Mary Magdalen, the 
parish church of Bermondsey. 

His hymn, entitled "The Christian Surrender," begin- 
ning with 

" Welcome, welcome, dear Eedeemer! " 

is taken from the " Supplement " of the London Edangel- 



414 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

ical Magazine for 1794. It contains, in the original, five 
stanzas, the second, third, and fourth of which are sub- 
joined : 

" Not my owTi, through thy redemptioD, 
And thy overcoming- grace, 
Hear the call of every passion, 
Saviour ! come and take thy place ; 

Lord ! come quickly ; 
Here display thy beauteous face. 

' ' Thousand thousand sad resorters, 
All th' attendant host of sin, 
Will and must become usurpers, 
If thyself be not within : 

Come, Lord Jesus ! 
Let thy glorious train be seen. 

" Set apart this humble dwelling. 
Here erect thy throne of state ; 
Faith, and every grace attending, 
Shall around thy footstool wait; — 

Thou, their Sovereign, 
Thou, their only Potentate." 

Mr. Mason's publications are characterized by j)ure doc- 
trine, deep piety, and an ardent zeal for the conversion 
and sanctification of souls. They have had a large cir- 
culation, and have exerted a powerful influence for good. 
" In the discharge of the filial, fraternal, conjugal, and 
parental duties, he was cheerful and exact"; while as a 
citizen and magistrate he was universally respected, and as 
a Christian greatly beloved. Though occupying, as a 
tradesman, a comparatively humble sphere, he " may, with 
strict i)ropriety, be classed among the good, the great, and 
useful, of society." 



EICHAED MASSIE. 415 

RICHARD MASSIE. 

1800 . 

Mr. Massie is of an ancient Chesliire family, — one of the 
oldest in tlie county. His father, the Rev. Richard Massie 
(1771-1854), was the only child of Thomas Massie, of Cod- 
dington, Cheshire, England, and Elizabeth, a daughter of 
Nathaniel Marriott, Esq., of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. His 
mother, Hester Lee Townshend, the eldest daughter of Col. 
Edward V. Townshend, of Wincham Hall, Cheshire, was 
married in 1796, and had twenty-two children, of whom 
eighteen came to maturity. 

Richard Massie was the eldest son of this large family, 
and was born, June 18, 1800. His early days were spent at 
Chester, where his father was settled from 1803 to 1832 in 
charge of the parish of St. Brides. He married, January 
7, 1834, Mary Ann, the eldest daughter of Hugh Robert 
Hughes, of Blache Hall, Chester. She died in 1841. Mr. 
Massie, being a gentleman of wealth and leisure, has de- 
voted himself to literature. He resides at Pulford Hall, 
Coddington, Cheshire ; and has, also, a seat at Wrexham, 
in Denbighshire, Wales. Both seats are but a few miles 
south of Chester. In 1854, he published a translation of 
"Martin Luther's Spiritual Songs"; and, in 1860, "Lyra 
Domestica : Translated from the ' Psaltery and Harp,' of 
C. J. P. Spitta, by Richard JNIassie," — which contains sev- 
eral hymns that have become quite popular. 

The following versification of one of Sj^itta's hymns, is a 
pleasing specimen of his style : 

' ' The purple morning gilds the eastern skies, 
And what the night had hidden from our eyes 

Now stands revealed to our admiring gaze ; 
Mountain and valley, wood and fruitful plain. 
Which in their misty hed asleep had lain, 

Shine forth and ghtter in the sun's bright rays. 



416 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

" Shine in my soul, and light and joy impart, 
O hlessed Jesus, Sun of my dark heart ! 

Oh! cause therein the light of truth to shine ^ 
Show me each crooked winding of my heart, 
Change and renew it so in every pai't, 

That my whole nature he transformed to thine. 

"Thoji Sun! by whom my new life first was lighted, 
Oh ! let me not again become benighted. 

But be my light when shades around me spread ; 
With the bright splendor of thy heavenly rays 
Illuminate the evening of my days, 

And shed a halo round my dying head." 



MARY FAWLER MAUDE. 

The author of the beautiful hymn, 

" Thine for ever, God of love ! " etc., 

is the wife of the Rev. Joseph Maude, a graduate of 
Queen's College, Oxford (of which he was, for some years, 
a Fellow), ordained a priest in 1829, some time Curate of 
Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, and, since 1852, Vicar of Chirk, 
near Ruabon, Denbighshire, and Honorary Canon of St. 
Asaph. While a resident of Carisbrooke, Mrs. Maude 
published (1848) "Twelve Letters on Confirmation," in 
which volume this hymn first appeared. On her removal 
(1852) to Wales, she X3ublished " Memorials of Past Years." 
Her hymns have usually been prepared for special paro- 
chial occasions. 



SAMUEL MEDLEY. 

1738-1799. 

Samuel Medley was a sailor-boy, and fond of the sea. His 
grandfather, Samuel, for whom he was named, was attached 



SAMUEL MEDLEY. 417 

to Lord Kinnoul's Embassy to Constantinople (1730), and 
was reputed a Christian man. His son, Gny, accompanied the 
Dnke of Montague in his tour of Europe, and, some time 
afterwards, resided in his mansion as private tutor, — having 
been early distinguished for his classical and literary at- 
tainments. He was subsequently, for a short season, At- 
torney-General of the Island of St. Vincent's, in the West 
Indies. On his return, he opened a boarding-school at 
Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and was honored with the friend- 
ship of the Rev. James Hervey and Sir Isaac Newton. He 
married a daughter of W. Tonge, principal of an academy 
at Enfield, in Middlesex. 

Samuel was the eldest of three sons, and was born at 
Cheshunt, June 23, 1738. At an early age, he was sent to 
his grandfather's school at Enfield. At fourteen, he 'was 
apprenticed to an oil-dealer in London, and, at seventeen, 
entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman, being promoted, 
not long after, to the position of master's mate, under Ad- 
miral Boscawen. In a sanguinary battle with the French 
off Cape Lagos, Portugal, August 18, 1759, he received a 
severe and dangerous wound. On the return of the fleet, 
he was carried, still on the crippled list, to the house of his 
grandfather Tonge, who had now removed to London, and 
become a deacon of the Baptist Church, Eagle Street, un- 
der the care of the Rev. Andrew Gifford, D.D. The kind 
and pious counsels of Mr. Tonge, seconded by the j)reach- 
ing of Whitefield and Gifford, were blessed to his conver- 
sion, and he joined the latter's church, in December, 1760. 

Having married in 1762, and taught a school in King 
Street, Solio, for several years (during which time he 
applied himself to the study of the classics and sacred lit- 
erature), he was licensed to preach in August, 1766 ; and, 
in June, 1767, he became the pastor of the Baptist Church 
of Watford, Hertfordshire, combining teaching with his 
new occupation. He proved to be a very acceptable 
preacher, and, in 1772, became the pastor of the Baptist 
Church in Liveri^ool, for which (1790) a commodious edi- 
fice was built in Byrom Street. Here he continued until 
27 



418 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

liis deafh, July 17, 1799, in liis sixty-first year. He had 
been for many years one of tlie preachers of the Tabernacle 
and Tottenham Court Road Chapels, London, making an 
annual visit to the metropolis for this purpose. He was a 
very godly man, and his ministry was greatly blessed. 

He had a great facility for versification, and was accus- 
tomed to write occasional hymns to accompany his ser- 
mons. They were at first printed as leaflets, and are dated 
from 1786 to 1790. He published, in 1789, a volume con- 
taining 77 of his hymns, and a larger volume in 1794. A 
still larger edition (230 hymns) was published the year 
after his death (1800), with the following title : " Hymns. 
— The Public Worship and Private Devotions of Christians 
Assisted, in Some Thoughts in Verse : Principally Drawn 
from Select Passages of the Word of Grod." 

The hymns by which he is best known are : 

" Awake, my soul, in joyful lays," etc., 

" Oh! could I speak the matchless worth," etc. 

He wrote nine hymns " On the Nativity of Christ," of 
one of which the first three of seven stanzas are subjoined : 

" Join, all who love the Saviour's name ! 
His boundless glories to proclaim, 

And sound his praise abroad ; 
He comes, a dying world to bless. 
With all the riches of his grace : 

All hail! incarnate God! 

" Join, ye bright tenants of the sky! 
Sound, sound his glorious name on high, 

And all his work applaud ; 
Your golden harps, your holy joy. 
Approve the theme, and love th' employ, 

To sing th' incarnate God. 

" Here, then, let heaven and earth combine, 
In songs melodious and divine, 

To reach his blessed abode ; 
Angels and men, unite to tell 
The glories of Innnanuel, 

And sing th' incarnate God." 



WILLtAM MERCER 419 

WILLIAM MERCER. 

1873. 

The Rev. William Mercee was educated in tlie Uni- 
versity of Cambridge. He graduated B.A. of Trinity 
CoUege, in 1835. He was ordained a deacon, the next 
year, by the Bishop of Chester. In 1839, he was preferred 
to Trinity Church, Habergham Eaves, in Lancashire, near 
Yorkshire. In the following year, he accepted the senior 
Curacy of the large church of Burnley, two miles distant. 
In 1841, he was preferred to the Perjjetual Curacy of St. 
George's, Sheffield, which he retained until his decease, 
in 1873. 

James Montgomery, for several years before his death, 
was one of his parishioners, and rendered him valuable as- 
sistance in the compilation of his "Church Psalter and 
Hymn Book." The first edition of this popular hymnal 
was issued, December, 1854 ; the second and improved edi- 
tion, in JN'ovember, 1860. A greatly improved edition, in 
three parts. The Canticles, The Psalms, and 511 Hymns, 
vdth Tunes, appeared in October, 1864. It has had a large 
circulation. In 1869, it had found its way into 1,000 
churches, several cathedrals, and the Royal chapels, and 
had an annual sale of about 100,000 copies. It was used 
by fifty-three of the London churches. It is an excellent 
compilation, and has contributed largely to the improve- 
ment of the Psalmody of the British churches. 

A very favorable specimen of the comjoiler's lyrical pow- 
ers is found in his translation of a German hymn by Nic- 
olai, in four stanzas, of which the first is subjoined : 

" How bright appeal's the morning star, 
With mercy beaming from afar ! 

The host of heaven rejoices ; 
O righteous Branch ! O Jesse's Rod ! 
Thou Son of man, and Son of God ! 

We too will lift our voices; 



420 THE POETS OF TH^ CHUECH. 

Jesus! Jesus! 
Holy, holy ! yet most lowly ! 
Draw tliou near us ; 
Great Immanuel I stoop and hear us." 



JAMES MERRICK. 

1720-1769. 

Mr. Mekrick is to be classed among the most careful 
and respectable of the English versifiers of " The Book of 
Psalms." Bishop Lowth, no mean authority, speaks of 
him as " a man of great learning," and characterizes his ver- 
sion as " an admirable work, distinguished by many splen- 
did marks of learning, art, and genius." A few only of his 
Psalms, however, have become i)opular. 

He was a native of Reading, Berkshire, England, and 
was born in 1720. He fitted for college at the grammar- 
school there, and, at the early age of fourteen, gave indica- 
tions of what he was yet to be, in the publication of " The 
Messiah : a Divine Essay." Two years afterwards (1736), he 
entered Trinity College, Oxford, where he greatly distin- 
guished himself as a classical scholar, and took his degrees 
in due form. He was chosen a Probationer Fellow of the 
same College in May, 1744. He had previously demonstra- 
ted his eminent fitness for this distinction, by publishing 
(1742) " The Destruction of Troy, translated from the Greek 
of Try[:)hiodorus into English Verse, with Notes." 

Though duly ordained to the ministry, he was compelled, 
by incessant pains in the head, to refrain from the perform- 
ance of its duties. He devoted himseK, therefore, to liter- 
ary pursuits. He published (1744) "A Dissertation on 
Proverbs IX. 1-6," with "occasional Remarks on other 
Passages in Sacred and Profane Writers." Besides sev- 
eral Tracts, published at intervals, he put forth (1763) his 
"Poems on Sacred Subjects," and (1764) "Annotations, 



JAMES MEERICK. 421 

Critical and Grammatical, on St. Jolin I. 1-14," with a sec- 
ond part in 1767. 

For years he had been devoted to the study of the 
Psalms in the original, and, in 1765, appeared "Tlie 
Psalms, Translated or Paraphrased in English Yerse," — 
"a mixture of Translation and Paraphrase"; "not calcu- 
lated for the uses of public Worship," but rather "the pur- 
poses of private devotion." 

His "Annotations on the Psalms," containing "a great 
deal of elegant criticism," and " classical illustration," was 
published in 1767. He died at Reading, January 0, 1769. 

In 1791, appeared " A Version or Paraphrase of the 
Psalms, originally written by the Rev. James Merrick, 
A.M., Divided into Stanzas, and adapted to the Pui'poses 
of Public or Private Devotion. By the Rev. W. D. Tatter- 
sall, A.M., Vicar of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, 
and Chaplain to the Hon. Mr. Justice Duller." The title- 
page is dated, 1789 ; but the publication was delayed two 
years in the vain hope of obtaining for it ecclesiastical au- 
thorization. The execution of this work necessarily in- 
volved some alterations of the original version, but the 
departures are as few and as slight as could have been ex- 
pected. Even in this form, however, the book has had a 
very limited circulation. While it contains some passages 
of great beauty, and much good poetry, with a versification 
generally harmonious, classical, and resonant, it is, for the 
most part, too rhetorical ; and, at times, pompous, diffuse, 
and inflated — not at all adapted for popular use. " The 
translator," he himself avows, "knew not how, without 
neglecting the poetry, to write in such language as the 
common sort of people would be likely to understand." 

Merrick's version of the 122d Psalm, — 

"With holy joy I hail the day," etc., 

is a translation and i^araphrase of Dr. Theodore Zwinger's 
Latin translation of the same Psalm, beginning with 

" O lux Candida, lux mihi 
Laeti conscia transitus I 



422 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Per Ckristi meritum patet 
Vita} porta beatae." 

Merrick has eight six-line stanzas. His version of the 133d 
Psalm is written in the same metre, thus : 

" How blessed the sight, the joy how sweet, 
When brothers joined with brothers meet, 

In bands of mutual love ! 
Less sweet the liquid fragrance, shed 
On Aaron's consecrated head. 

Ran triclding from above, 
And reached his beard, and reached his vest : 
Less sweet the dews on Hermon's breast, 

Or Zion's hiU descend : 
That hill has God with blessings crowned, 
There promised gi^ace that knows no bound, 

And life that knows no end." 



ALBERT MIDLANE. 

1825 . 

Albert Midlane was born, January 23, 1825, at New- 
port, Isle of Wight. He was the youngest of a large 
family, and was trained, by Christian parents, in the ways 
of godliness. In early youth, he became an huml^le follow- 
er of Christ, and devoted his talents to the glory of God. 
He was prompted to poetic effort, by some remarks of his 
Sunday- School teacher. His earliest published hymn, — 

" God bless our Sunday-Schools ! " etc., 

was contributed (1843) to the Baptist CMldren^s Magazine. 
His first volume, " Poetry addressed to Sabbath-School 
Teachers," was issued in 1844, followed, in 1848, by " The 
Fatherless Village Girl." 
One mile to the southwest of the town of Newport are 



JAMES EL WIN MILLAED. 423 

the venerable ruins of Carisbrooke Castle. Hither he used 
frequently to resort, at the twilight hour, and meditate 
among the inspiring scenery of the place. Most of his 
hymns were written during these walks ; and here, too, w^as 
suggested his " Yecta Garland : Poems on the Scenery 
and Beauty of the Isle of Wight," published (1850) under 
the patronage of Prince Albert. He published nothing 
further until 1860, when he contributed nine hymns to 
" The Evangelist's Hymn-Book," and one, at least, to " Good 
News for the Little Ones"; also, in 1861, fifty-one to "The 
Ambassador's Hjann-Book," and one to the " London Mes- 
senger"; in 1862, forty to the "Hymn-Book for Youth," 
and several to "William Carter's Gospel Hymn-Book." 

Many of his hymns and fugitive pieces were gathered 
into a volume, and published (1864) with the title, — " Leaves 
from Olivet : A Collection of Sacred Poetry." This was fol- 
lowed (1865) by ten pieces in " Pleasant Hymns for Boys 
and Girls," and a large number in " Gospel Echoes." " The 
Union Series of Leaflets " appeared in 1868. He has been 
a frequent contributor, both of prose and poetry, to several 
of the periodicals. 



JAMES ELWIN MILLARD. 

1821 . 

The Rev. Dr. Millard is a graduate of Magdalen Col- 
lege, Oxford, where he took his degree of B.A., in 1845, 
and of M.A., in 1848. On his graduation, he was also 
chosen one of the Fellows of the College. Being appointed 
to the Curacy of Bradtield, Berkshire, he was ordained a 
deacon, June 7, 1846, by the Bishop of Oxford. He re 
ceived, also, the same year, an appointment to the Head 
Mastership of Magdalen College School, Oxford. The fol 
lowing year, May 30, 1847, he was ordained to the priest 



424 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

hood. In 1859, lie received the degree of D.D. from Mag- 
dalen College. 

His first publication (1847) was "The Island Choir, or 
the Children of the Child Jesus." The next year (1848), he 
published " Historical Notices of the Office of Choristers," 
and contributed several hymns to "The Devout Chorister"; 
also (1850) to " The Ecclesiastic." In 1864, he was preferred 
to the Vicarage of Basingstoke, Hampshire. His version of 
the "TeDeum," 

" God eternal, Lord of all," etc., 

was contributed (1848) to " The Devout Chorister," and, in 
the original, consists of eight stanzas. 



HENRY MILLS. 

1786-1867. 

Heistry Mills was the son of John Mills and Chloe Wines, 
of Morristown, 'N. J., where he was born, March 12, 1786. 
He fitted for college in his native place, and graduated at 
the College of New Jersey, Princeton, in 1802. He took 
charge of the Morristown Academy shortly after, and, in 
1806, of the Elizabethtown Academy. In 1810, he was Tu- 
tor of the College at Princeton. He studied theology with 
his former pastor, the Rev. James Richards, D.D., was 
licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Jersey, received a 
call to the pastoral care of the Presbyterian Church of 
Woodbridge, N. J., and was ordained there, in 1816. After 
a successful pastorate of five years, he removed to Auburn, 
N. Y., to occupy the chair of Biblical Criticism in the newly- 
founded Theological Seminary. In this position he contin- 
ued, honored and successful as a theological teacher, until 
the year 1854, when, by reason of increasing physical in- 
firmities, he was, at his own request, relieved from the du- 



HENEY HAET MILMAN. 425 

ties of his cliair, and made Professor Emeritus. Tlie re- 
maining thirteen years of his life were occupied mostly in 
literary and theological study, and recreation. In 1833, he 
was honored with the degree of D.D., by Amherst College. 
He died, June 10, 1867, at Auburn, N. Y., in his eighty- 
second year. 

He married, in early life. Miss Maria Barkins, who out- 
lived him. Two sons and five daughters were given them ; 
four of the latter becoming the wives of clergymen, viz.: 
Rev. Russell S. Cook, Rev. Claudius B. Lord, Rev. Henry 
A. Nelson, D.D., and Rev. Frederick Starr, Jr. 

Dr. Mills was an admirable Hebrew scholar, and excelled 
in Biblical Criticism. He made himself familiar, also, with 
the German language, and occupied many of his spare 
hours in translating, into English verse, some of the many 
excellent hymns with which that language abounds. These 
he gave to the press, in 1845, with the title,—" Horse Ger- 
manics : A Version of German Hjnnns." This volume 
contained 128 translations, all of them, with four excep- 
tions, in the exact measure of the original ; with an "Ap- 
pendix," containing "A Version of 'Dies Irge,' " and of a 
" Part of ' Stabat Mater.' " A second edition, revised, with 
44 additional translations, appeared in 1856. The versifi- 
cation is smooth, the rhyme and rhythm exact, and the 
style attractive. The book is among the best of its kind. 



HENRY HART MILMAN. 

1791-1868. 

The Rev. Dr. Milman occupied a conspicuous place 
among the ripe scholars and distinguished authors of the 
nineteenth century. Known at first as a poet and divama- 
tist, with an ambitious and somewhat pompous yet vigor- 
ous style, he came to be regarded as one of the best ecclesi- 
astical historians of the age. 



426 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Dean Milraan was the youngest son of Sir Francis Mil- 
man, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., President of the CoUege of Phy- 
sicians, and Physician to the Royal household, the son of 
a Devonshire clergyman, and a graduate of Exeter College, 
Oxford. His mother, Frances Hart, was the only child of 
William Hart, of Stapleton, Gloucestershire. He was born, 
February 10, 1791, in the parish of St. James, Westmin- 
ster, London. He was trained successively, — at the Acad- 
emy in Greenwich, of which the Rev. Charles Barney, 
D.D., LL.D., one of the most distinguished Greek schol- 
ars of the day, was the Principal ; at Eton College ; and 
at Brazenose College, Oxford, entering the latter in 1810, 
and graduating, B.A., in 1813, and M.A., in 1816. He 
wrote, in 1812, an English poem on " The Belvedere Apol- 
lo," for vvliich he received the Newdegate prize ; and, the 
year following, won the prize for the best Latin verse. In 
1815, he was chosen a Fellow of his College, and published 
"Fazio: a Tragedy." In 1816, he took the prize for the 
best English and Latin Essay. The high promise of his 
youth was fully confirmed in later years. 

In 1816, he was ordained a deacon by Dr. Howley, the 
Bishop of London, and priest, in 1817, by Dr. Legge, the 
Bishop of Oxford. He obtained the Vicarage of St. Mary's, 
Reading, Berkshire, in 1818, and, during his incumbency, 
entered upon his career of authorship. " Samor, Lord of 
the Bright City, an Heroic Poem," begun at Eton, was pub- 
lished in 1818, and " The Fall of Jerusalem, a Dramatic Po- 
em," in 1820. In December of the same year, Reginald 
Heber, then Rector of Hodnet, asked his " assistance and 
contribution to the Collection" of hymns which he was 
then preparing. " I know," he wrote, " with what facility 
you write poetry, and all the world knows with what suc- 
cess you write religious poetry." In cheerful response to 
this request, Milman contributed the following year (1821) 
the twelve hymns which are attributed to him in the Col- 
lection published by Mrs. Heber in 1827. Under date 
of December 28, 1821, Heber wrote: "You have indeed 
sent me a most powerful reinforcement to my projected 



HENRY HART MILMAN. 427 

hymn-bools:. A few more sucli hymns and I shall neither 
need nor wait for the aid of Scott and Soiitliey." To his 
friendship for Heber, therefore, the Christian world is in- 
debted for Milman's hymns, some of which are admirable 
I)roductions. 

He was chosen (1821) Professor of Poetry for ten years 
in Oxford University, as the successor of the Rev. John J. 
Conybeare. The same year, he published " The Belvedere 
Apollo; Fazio, a Tragedy; and other Poems." He pro- 
duced, in 1822, " The Martyr of Antioch," and " Belshaz- 
zar," both of them Dramatic Poems. In 1826, he pub- 
lished "Anne Boleyn," also a Dramatic Poem. He was 
appointed to deliver the Bamj)ton Lectures at Oxford, in 
1827, and chose, for his theme, " The Character and Con- 
duct of the Apostles considered as an Evidence of Christi- 
anity." His first contribution to History was made in 
1829 — " The History of the Jews," in three volumes. To 
this succeeded, in 1835, the last year of his residence at 
Reading, " Nala and Damayanti, and other Poems, trans- 
lated from the Sanscrit." 

He was now (1835) transferred to the Rectory of St. Mar- 
garet's, Westminster, directly under the shadow of West- 
minster Abbey, and at the same time made a Prebendary 
of St. Peter at Westminster. In 1837, he published a " Se- 
lection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of St. Margaret's, 
Westminster." He also edited, for Murray, Gibbon's " De- 
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire," which was published, 
in four volumes (1838), with a " Preface," a " Sketch of the 
Author's Life," and copious and corrective "Notes," by 
Milman. This was followed, in 1839, by " The Life of Ed- 
ward Gibbon, with Selections from his Corresioondence." 
The work on which he had been, for years, expending his 
energies next appeared (1840), as " The History of Christi- 
anity, from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of Pagan- 
ism in the Roman Empire." Though written before he had 
access to Strauss' work, " Das Leben Jesu," it contains, in 
an Appendix to Chap. II., a confutation of the Gennan 
Philosopher ; and Milman claimed that his " History " was 



428 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

"a complete, tliongh of course undesigned, refutation of 
his hyjjotliesis." His leading object, in this very able His- 
tory, was " to trace the effect of Christianity on the individ- 
ual and social happiness of man, its iniluence on the Polity, 
the Laws and Institutions, the opinions, the manners, even 
on the Arts and the Literature of the Christian world," — 
" to exhibit the reciprocal influence of civilization on Chris- 
tianity, of Christianity on civilization." 

He was appointed, in 1849, Dean of St. Paul's, London, 
and received from Oxford University the degree of D.D. 
The same year, he published an illustrated edition of " The 
Works of Quintus Horatius Flaccus," with " A Life," — " a 
truly classical biography." Several years were now given 
to the production of his last great work, " The History of 
Latin Christianity, including that of the Popes to the Pon- 
tificate of Nicholas V.," which was published, three vol- 
umes in 1854, and three volumes in 1856. His Poetic 
Works were published (1839) complete in three volumes. 
He wrote, also, a " Life of Keats," and a " Memoir of Thos. 
Babington Macaulay" (1858). He was, moreover, a fre- 
quent contributor to the London Quarterly Reirleio, Fra- 
sefs Magazine^ and others. In 1865, he published a Trans- 
lation of "iEschylus and Euripides"; also of "the Lyric 
and Later Poets of Greece." He left, at his death, " The 
Annals of St. Paul's Cathedral," which came out the same 
year (1868). 

After a life of great literary labor and of incessant activ- 
ity as an author, he was at length overtaken with paralysis, 
and died, September 24, 1868, at Sunninglield, near Ascot, 
in the seventy-eighth year of his age. 

As a preacher he was less known than as a writer. His 
sermons were elegant and classical, but passionless, — well 
read, but destitute of energy. He was decidedly libera] 
in theological opinions and ecclesiastical matters — being 
classed with the Broad Church Party. He was tall and of 
a graceful figure, with an aquiline nose, small mouth, black 
eyes with bushy eyebrows, and abundant hair overshadow- 
ing a high forehead. He was altogether a man of distin- 



HENEY HART MILMAN. 429 

guished presence, as lie was, in fact, " a prince and a great 
man in Israel." 

As a jDrose writer and a historian, lie occupied a position 
of great eminence. His poetry, also, is of a liigh order, 
some of it extremely beautiful. Of one of liis books, the 
Quarterly Bemeio says : " Every page exhibits some beau- 
tiful expression, some pathetic turn, some original thought, 
or some striking image." His hymn for the " Second Sun- 
day in Advent," contributed to Heber's Collection, fairly 
exhibits his style : 

' ' The chariot ! the chariot ! its wheels roll on fii'e, 
As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of his u'e : 
Self -moving it drives on its pathway of cloud, 
And the heavens with the burthen of Godhead are bowed. 

" The glory! the glory! by myi'iads are poured, 
The hosts of the angels to wait on their Lord, 
And the glorified saints and the martyrs are there, 
And all who the palm-^vi'eath of victory wear. 

' ' The trumpet ! the trumpet ! the dead have all heard ; 
Lo ! the depths of the stone-covered charnel are stirred ; 
From the sea, from the land, from the south and the north, 
The vast generations of men are come forth. 

" The judgment! the judgment! the thi^ones ai^e all set. 
Where the Lamb and the white- vested elders are met ; 
All flesh is at once Ln the sight of the Lord 
And the doom of eternity hangs on his word. 

" Oh! mercy! Oh! mercy! look down from above, 
Creator ! on us, thy sad children, with love ; 
When beneath to then* darkness the wicked ai'e driven, 
May our sanctified souls find a mansion in heaven ! " 



430 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

JOHN MILTON. 

1608-1674. 

England's great epic poet was born appropriately in the 
very lieart of old London. Tlie house, in which he first saw 
the light, was but three doors south of Cheapside in Bread 
Street, at the sign of the Spread Eagle, almost under the 
eaves of old Bow Church. He was born December 9, 1608. 
His father was a scrivener, of good repute, and well-to-do 
in his worldly estate. John was the third of six children, 
three of whoni died in infancy — an elder sister and a 
younger brother, Christopher, surviving. 

He was a boy of fine promise, and the pride of the house. 
Every advantage of education was given him — a tutor at 
home, and a place in St. Paul's school from 1620 to 1625. 
A taste for j^oetry and music was inherited from his father, 
who was himself a musical comjDoser. In Ravenscroft's 
Psalter, 1621, John Milton, senior, appears as the harmo- 
nizer of the good old psalm tunes, York and Norwich. It 
is not strange, therefore, that, with an organ in the house, 
in almost constant use by the father, the boy should have 
obtained considerable culture in this dii'ection. His ver- 
sion of the 136th Psalm, beginning with 

' ' Let us, with a gladsome mind, 
Praise the Lord, for he is kind," 

dates back to 1624, when he was only fifteen years of age. 
He entered Christ's College, Cambridge, as a pensioner, 
February 12, 1625. He was admitted to the degree of 
A.B., in January, 1629, and continued his residence at 
Cambridge until July, 1632, when he graduated A.M. His 
celebrated ode, " On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," was 
composed for Christmas, 1629. It contains the well-knoAvn 
hymn, beginning with 

' ' It was the winter wild, 
While the heaven-horn child. 
All meanly wrapped, in the rude manger lies." 



JOHN MILTON. 431 

During tliis period lie cultivated, also, and became skilled 
in, tlie art of writing Latin poetry. Previous to his leav- 
ing Cambridge, lie had written enough poetry, both English 
and Latin, to form a considerable volume, and had devel- 
oped a purpose to devote himself to the pursuit of Litera- 
ture. His father had designed him for the Church, but 
Laud's intolerance turned him away from the pulpit. 
Nearly six years were now passed at Horton, Buckingham- 
shire, a quiet agricultural hamlet, whither his father had 
retired on giving up business. Here the poet i^erfected 
himself in the Latin and Greek Classics, and cultivated, in 
the midst of the lovely scenery of the neighborhood, his ac- 
quaintance with the Muse. Here he wrote his " Sonnet to 
the Nightingale," "L' Allegro," "H Penseroso," "Arcades," 
" Comus," and " Lycidas." 

In April, 1638, he visited the Continent, travelling 
through Italy to Naples ; and, having received much at- 
tention from scholars abroad, returned home in the sum- 
mer of 1639. Attaching hiniseK to the Puritan party in 
politics, he took up his abode in London, and opened a 
school in Aldersgate Street. With the meeting of Parlia- 
ment, in 1640, began the great struggle for poi^ular rights. 
Milton, for the next twenty years, gave himself to the cause 
of Liberty. In 1641, he published his treatise, " Of Ref- 
ormation, touching Church Discipline in England," — a vig- 
orous assault on Episcopacy. This was followed, in 1642, by 
two other pamphlets on the same topic, — "Of Prelatical 
Episcopacy," and the "Reason of Church Government 
urged against Prelaty." 

His marriage to Mary, the eldest daughter of Richard 
Powell, of Forest Hill, near Shotone, Oxfordshire, occurred 
in June, 1643, after a very short courtship. It proved 
very uncongenial, his wife, at the end of four weeks, 
going back to her father's house, and for two years refus- 
ing to return to her husband. This sore disappointment 
led Milton to publish several pamphlets on the subject of 
Divorce, for which he was severely censured. His treatise 
" Of Education," and his " Areopagitica, a Speech for the 



432 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," appeared in 1644 ; and 
a volume of Ms " Poems" followed in 1645, witli tlie return 
of Ms wife, to whom he now became reconciled. About 
this time he began to write his " History of Britain. " 

After the execution of Charles I., January 30, 1649, he 
justified the act in his " Tenure of Kings and Magistrates," 
and was appointed Secretary for Foreign Tongues — or Latin 
Secretary of State. In answer to the " Eikon Basilike ; or 
a Portraiture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitude and his 
Sufferings," he published, the same year, his " Iconoclastes, 
or the Image-Breaker." His " Defensio Populi Angiicani " 
(1651) was written in reply to the " Defensio Regis " of Sal- 
masius at Leyden ; and for this a thousand pounds were 
voted to him by a grateful Parliament. His " Defensio se- 
cunda pro populo Anglicano," in response to Peter du Mou- 
lin, appeared in 1654. 

His eyesight, which had for years been seriously affected 
by his incessant studies, quite failed him in 1653 ; and the 
year after, his wife died, leaving three little daughters — one 
only a few days old. Needing more than ever, in his blind- 
ness, the companionship of a good wife, he married, in 1656, 
Catherine, a daughter of Captain Woodcock, of Hackney. 
She died in less than fifteen months, greatly to his grief, 
as expressed in an admirable sonnet to her memory. 

He now resumed the " History of Britain," and made 
large prei^aration for a new Latin Dictionary (never com- 
pleted), — still retaining, until the " Restoration," his posi- 
tion as Latin Secretary. He, also, from and after 1655, 
occupied himself, at intervals, with the plan and structure 
of " The Paradise Lost." Immediately after the " Restora- 
tion," he was removed from ofiice, and obliged to seek con- 
cealment. Though prosecuted as an enemy to the King, 
and for a while under arrest, he obtained pardon, and de- 
voted his remaining days to literature. Having taken a 
house in Jewin Street, near Aldersgate Street, he occujDied 
himself with the completion of his great epic poem. In 
1663, he married, at the recommendation of his friend, Dr. 
Paget, as his third wife, Elizabeth Minshul, the daughter 



JOHN MILTON. 433 

of a Cheshire gentleman. Soon after, he removed, for the 
last time, to a house in the Artillery Walk, leading to Bun- 
hill Fields, where, in 1665, he completed his immortal 
poem. The same year, the Plague raged in London, and 
he found refuge at St. Giles Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, 
in a house taken for him by his friend, Thomas EUwood. 

His " Paradise Lost " was published by Samuel Simmons, 
London, 1667, and met with a slow sale — the hrst edition 
of 1,500 copies not having been disposed of in less than 
three years. He had submitted the manuscript, at Chal- 
font, in 1665, to Ell wood, who, referring to the title, pleas- 
antly remarked, — "Thou hast said much of 'Paradise 
Lost'; but what hast thou to say of 'Paradise Found'?" 
Acting on this hint, Milton wrought out his " Paradise Re- 
gained," Avhich, with his " Samson Agonistes," was pub- 
lished in 1671. His "History of Britain" had been pub- 
lished the year before. 

In his last years, in addition to his total blindness, he 
suffered greatly from the gout, which finally resulted in 
his death, November 8, 1674. His remains were deposited 
by the side of his father's, in St. Giles' Church, Cripple- 
gate. His wife survived him ; also, his three daughters. 

It seems scarcely credible— but such is the fact — that Mil- 
ton received only ten pounds from the sale of his great epic ; 
and the copyright was sold by his widow, seven years after 
his death, for eight pounds. In the latter part of the 
year 1823, Mr. Lemon discovered, in the Old State Paper 
Office, Middle Treasury Gallery, Whitehall, a Latin Manu- 
script of 735 pages, with the title, — " Joannis Miltoni 
Angli He Doctrina Christiana, Ex Sacris duntaxat Libris 
petita, Disquisitionum Libri Duo Posthumi." It was trans- 
lated by Charles R. Sumner, the late Bishop of Winches- 
ter, published (1825) in two volumes, and republished in 
Boston, Mass., the same year, with the title, — " A Treatise 
of Christian Doctrine." 

In 1648, Milton composed versions of nine of the Psalms, 
quite literal and faithful. His " Hymn on the Nativity," 
composed a few days after completing his twenty-first year, 
28 



434 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

contains twenty-seven double stanzas, with the following 
poem: 

" This is the raontli, and this the happy morn, 

Wherein the Son of heaven's eternal King, 
Of "wedded maid and vu'gm mother born, 

Our great redemption from above did bring ; 

For so the holy sages once did sing. 
That he our deadly forfeit should release, 
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. 

" That glorious form, that light unsufferable. 

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty, 
Wherewith he wont, at heaven's high council-table, 

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, 

He laid aside ; and, here with us to be. 
Forsook the courts of everlasting day. 
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. 

" Say, heavenly Muse! shall not thy sacred vein 
Afford a present to the infant God ? 
Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain. 
To welcome him to tliis his new abode. 
Now, while the heaven, by the sun's team untrod ; 
Hath took no print of the approaching light, 
And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright ? 

" See how, from far, upon the eastern road. 

The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet ! 
Oh! run, prevent them ^vith thy humble ode, 

And lay it lowly at his blessed feet ; 

Have thou the honor first thy Lord to greet. 
And join thy voice unto the angel quire, 
From out his seci'et altar touched with hallowed fire." 



JOHN SAMUEL BEWLEY MONSELL. 

1811-1875. 

The Rev. De. Monsell was a native of Ireland, the 
son of the Rev. Thomas Bewley Monsell, A.M., Archdea- 



JOHN SMIUEL BEWLEY MONSELL. 435 

con of Deny, and Precentor of Christ Clinrcli Cathedral. 
He was born at St. Columb's, Londonderry, March 2, 1811. 
He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating, 
B.A., in 1832. He was ordained deacon in 1834, and priest 
in 1835. He was appointed, by Bishop Mant, his exam- 
ining Chaplain, and subsequently Chancellor of the diocese 
of Conner. He received, also, an appointment to the Rec- 
tory of Ramoan. In 1850, he published his " Parish Mus- 
ings, or Devotional Poems,"— characterized, by the Chris- 
tian Remembrancer, as " combining pious thoughts of a 
slightly vague theology, with a general amount of right 
feeling," and "slight inaccuracies." It had reached an 
eighth edition in 1865. 

He was transferred to the Church of England, in 1853, 
having been presented to the Vicarage of Egham, Surrey. 
He received (1856) the degree of LL.D., from the Univer- 
sity of Dublin. He found time, in his new position, near 
the metropolis, to prepare and publish several literary 
works: "Spiritual Songs"; "His Presence, not his Mem- 
ory"; "The Beatitudes"; "Prayers and Litanies"; "Eng- 
lish Sisterhoods"; "No Sect on Earth"; "The Passing 
Bell"; " Ode to the Nightingales" (1867) ; and " Our New 
Vicar, or Plain Words on Ritual and Parish Work" (1867) ; 
and, of these, several have been issued in repeated editions. 

In 1870, he was presented to the Rectory of St. Nicholas, 
Guildford, Surrey, a position of considerable emolument, 
which he retained until his decease, April 9, 1875. His 
death was sudden,— the result of an accident during the 
erection of a new building for the church at Guildford. 

Tlie hjanns of Dr. Monsell are of a high order. They 
appeared, mostly, in his " Hymns of Love and Praise for 
the Church's Year," the Preface to which is dated "All 
Saints' Day, 1862." He says: "The great mass of aU now 
put forth appear for the first time, having been written 
during the summer just ended. An admirable article on 
Hymnology, in the Quarterly Remew of last April [repro- 
duced in LittelVs Living Age, June 7, 1862], suggested the 
idea of endeavoring to reach the higher standai'd therein 



436 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

presented. . . [They] were written to illustrate an idea 
wMcli has long tilled their author's mind, that such por- 
tions of our Divine worship should be more fervent and 
joyous, more exj^ressive of real and personal love to God 
than they are in general found to be. . . They are the ut- 
terances of a soul conscious of most intense longings for 
closer communion with God." Such should all hymns be, 
and Dr. Monsell seems to have been well qualified to illus- 
trate his ideal. Some of his hymns are truly admirable ; 
many of them are subjective, and reveal a high order of 
Christian experience. The hymn for the " Sunday next 
before Advent," which is here subjoined, was suggested by 
the words (Cant. iv. 7), " Thou art fair, my love ! there is 
no spot in thee": 

" I would that I were fairer, Lord ! 

More what thy bride shoiild be, 
More meet to be the shai'er, Lord ! 

Of love and heaven with thee ; 
Yet, if thy love with me thou'lt share, 
I know that love can make me fair. 

" Oh! would that I were purer. Lord I 

More filled with grace divine, 
Oh ! would that I were surer, Lord ! 

That my whole heart is thine ; 
Were it so pure that I might see 
Thy beauty, I would grow like thee. 

"Oh! would that I could higher, Lord! 
Above these senses live, 
Each feeling, each desire, Lord ! 

Could wholly to thee give ; 
The love I thus would daily share, 
That love alone would make me fair. 

" Thy goodness and thy beauty, Lord! 

Shall robe and mirror be, 
With ornaments of duty, Lord ! 

I'll deck my soul for thee ; 
Till all thy love, beyond compare. 
Pass into me, and make me fair." 



JAMES MONTGOMEEY. 487 

JAMES MONTGOMERY. 

■ 1771-1854. 

The name of James Montgomery is known and cherished 
by the lovers of sacred song throughout the Christian 
world. His Sacred Lyrics are among the best of his pro- 
ductions. Some of them are found in nearly all the compi- 
lations of Hymns now used in Great Britain and America ; 
and not a few of them have been translated into foreign 
tongues. Many of them will live forever. 

Grace Hill is a Moravian settlement, about one mile to 
the west of Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland. It was 
founded in 1765, and was the result, mainly, of the preach- 
ing, in those parts, some twenty years before, of the Rev. 
John Cennick. John Montgomery, of a family residing in 
that neighborhood, had become a convert to the doctrines 
of the United Brethren, and joined the paternity of Grace 
Hill. Being a man of good address, as well as sincere piety, 
he was designated as a ]3reacher. After awhile, he married 
a young woman, connected with the Society, named Mary 
Blackley ; and the young couple were sent as missionaries, 
across the North Channel, to assist the Rev. John Caldwell. 
They fixed their abode in the humble to^Ti of Irvine, Ayr- 
shire, on the Frith of Clyde ; and there, November 4, 1771, 
James, their eldest son, was born. It Avas a romantic spot, 
and well fitted for poetic impressions on the mind of the 
fair-haired child. 

In 1776, the Moravian preacher, with his familj?^, returned 
to Grace Hill. In 1777, at the age of six years, James was 
sent to the Moravian settlement w^hich, in 1748, had been 
founded on Benjamin Ingham's estate, near Leeds, York- 
shire, and named Fulneck. Here, for nine years, he remained 
under the care and tuition of " The Brethren," and was in- 
ducted into the sciences, ancient and modern. Designed 
for the Moravian ministry, he was taught German and 
French, as well as Latin and Greek, besides the ordinary 



438 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

studies of an Englisli grammar-scliool. In tlie meantime, 
his parents, having, in 1779, brought their two remaining 
sons, Ignatius and Robert, to Fulneck, were sent forth, in 
1783, as missionaries to Barbados, in the West Indies ; 
whence in 1789 they removed to Tobago, where his mother 
died, October 23, 1790, followed soon after by his father, 
who died at Barbados, June 27, 1791. 

James was but an indifferent scholar. His teachers made 
unfavorable reports of his progress. One of them, on a 
summer day, took a few boys to a shady spot in the fields, 
and read to them Blair's "Grave." Young Montgomery 
was delighted with what he heard, and the poetic fer- 
vor was evoked. He, too, could make verses ; and, be- 
fore he had finished his tenth year, he had filled a 
volume with verses of his own. Thenceforward he was 
ever at it — versifying on all manner of subjects, writing 
hymns after the pattern of tlie Moravian Hymn-Book, and 
attempting poems, also, of considerable length. As his 
teachers despaired of making him a scholar, they put him, 
at fifteen, to serve in a huckster's shop, at Mirfield, a small 
hamlet in the vicinity. Here, too, he found time to wi'ite 
verses. His paraphrase of the 113th Psalm, 

" Servants of God! in joyful lays," etc., 

is said to have been written at this period. 

On a Sunday morning, June 19, 1789, he took abrupt 
leave of Mirfield, and, Abraham-like, " went out not know- 
ing whither he went." He trudged along, that day and 
the next, through Doncaster to WentworlJi. At Wath, 
on the river Dearne, near the latter place, he found em- 
ployment in a country store— still filling up his spare mo- 
ments with verse-making. The village bookseller encour- 
aged him to make a careful selection of his poetry for 
publication, and forwarded it himself to a London publish- 
er. Montgomery, well recommended, made his way, soon 
after, to the metropolis. Harrison, to whom his volume 
had been sent, declined to publish it, but gave its author 
employment as a clerk in liis store. Here he remained a 



JAMES MONTGOMERY. 439 

year, well provided for, but thwarted continually in Ms re- 
peated attempts to appear in print. Disgusted at length 
with the great world of London, he returned to Wath, 
and was gladly reinstated in his old position. 

He was now of full age, and desirous to get into sonie 
profitable business. A clerk was wanted at Sheflield. Hia 
eye lighted on the advertisement. He applied, by letter, 
for the situation, and obtained it, and entered on his new 
vocation, April 2, 1792. His employer was Joseph Gales, 
printer, bookseller, auctioneer, and editor of Tlie Sheffield 
Register. He soon found himself in full sympathy with 
his radical employer, and espoused the cause of pop- 
ular rights. The French Revolution. had created a great 
ferment in Great Britain. The Government took the alarm, 
and sought to repress the agitation. Persecution and im- 
prisonment were resorted to. Mr. Gales sought safety in 
flight. He found his way to Philadelphia, in 1794, and, 
for five years, edited there the Independent Gazette; re- 
moving thence, he edited, for forty years, The Raleigh 
(N. C.) Register. 

The Sheffield Register was changed, July 14, 1794, to 
The Sheffield Iris, with James Montgomery as its editor. 
Twice within a year (1795-96), on some flimsy pretence, he 
was prosecuted, fined, and imprisoned, but all the more he 
advocated the people's cause, and his paper was increasing- 
ly patronized. It was continued under his editorship more 
than thirty years. 

During his incarceration in York Castle, he occupied 
himself considerably with the composition of short poems, 
which were published, in 1797, under the title of " Prison 
Amusements." " Tlie Ocean, and other Poems," was issued 
in 1805 ; followed, early in January, 1806, by "The Wan- 
derer of Switzerland," which, in spite of the savage criti- 
cism of Jefl'rey, in the Edinburgh Revieic, was received 
with marked favor, 12,000 copies having been disposed of 
in twenty years (besides several editions in America), at a 
profit of $4,000 to the author. It resulted, also, in his con- 
nection with the Eclectic Review. 



440 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

The African Slave Trade was, in 1807, abolished by the 
British Parliament. At the request of Mr. Bowyer, of 
Pall Mall, who was about to publish a set of engravings 
commemorative of the grand event, he wrote, the same 
year, " The West Indies," but it was not brought out until 
1810. Early in the latter year, he had completed his 
"World before the Flood," which appeared "Avith other 
Occasional Pieces," in 1813. 

Montgomery had, for years, been deeply interested in re- 
ligion and its enterprises. He now determined to identify 
himself openly and fully with the disciples of Christ. At 
the close of the year 1814, he was publicly recognized, at 
Fulneck, as a brother in the Lord, and a member of the 
Society. It was, in all probability, on this occasion that 
he wrote his beautiful and popular h\Tnn, beginning with 

" People of the living God ! " 

Pie now took an active part in the promotion of Sunday- 
Schools, Bible and Tract Societies, and the work of Mis- 
sions. An appeal in behalf of the Moravian missions in 
Greenland appeared (1818) in the columns of his paper. 
So deeply had he become interested in this entei^rise, as 
to be impelled -to write and publish, in 1819, his "Green- 
land," a missionary poem. 

He had published, in 1817, his " Thoughts on Wheels," a 
philippic against lotteries ; and the " Climbing Boy's So- 
liloquies," an appeal for the Chimney Sweepers, His 
" Songs of Zion, being Imitations of the Psalms," came 
out in 1822, containing 72 versions, among which are some 
of the sweetest and best sacred lyrics in the language. 
Tliey had been composed at intervals during the previous 
thirty years, but more particularly since 1807, about which 
time, being in deep distress for sin, he is supposed to have 
written the hymn, — 

" Oh ! where shall rest be found," etc. 

In the latter part of 1825, he published "The Christian 
Psalmist ; or HjTnns Selected and Original," and, in 1826 



JAMES MONTGOMERY, 441 

"The Christian Poet ; Selections in Yerse," — both of which 
were "compiled by him for Mr. [Wm.] Collins, of Glas- 
gow." The Psalmist contained 562 hymns, 103 of which 
are from his o\^ti pen. A seventh edition had been called 
for in 1832. " The Christian Poet " " comjirehended pieces 
of a higher order, .... laying claim to the gennine honors 
of verse, as the noblest vehicle of the noblest thoughts." 
To each of these was prefixed an " Introductory Essay," of 
peculiar value. " Prose by a Poet," taken mainly from his 
editorials in The 87ieffield Iris, was issued in 1824. 

At the close of the year 1825, Montgomery retired 
from the editorship of The Iris. He had now a suffi- 
cient income from his various publications, and was glad 
to be relieved from the incessant pressure of thirty years, 
that he might give himself to those ministrations of 
mercy in which he so much delighted. " The Pelican 
Island," a poem, in blank verse, one of the most original, 
imaginative, philosophical, and truly poetic of his larger 
pieces, appeared in 1827. At the solicitation of the " Lon- 
don Missionary Society," he undertook to recompose, from 
journals and other memoranda, a "Journal of the Voyages 
and Travels of the Rev. Daniel Tyerman, and George Ben- 
net, Esq.," as a Deputation of the Society to their various 
Missions in the East (1821-1829). The work, which cost 
the editor great labor, was published June 1, 1831, in two 
volumes, and republished the next year, at Boston, Mass. 

In May, 1830, he delivered a course of Lectures on Eng- 
lish Literature, before the " Royal Institution," and another 
course on " General Literature, Poetry," etc. , the year fol- 
lowing. These were given to the press, both in London 
and New York, in 1833, and were received ^dth great 
favor. Two years later, he sent forth " A Poet's Portfolio ; 
or Minor Poems — In three Books." The same year. Sir 
Robert Peel placed his name on the pension list of the 
Literary Fund, for £150 a year, as a reward for literary 
services. He now gathered, revised, and arranged his " Po- 
etical Works," which he published (1836) in three volumes 
— an edition of which not long after appeared in America. 



442 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

He had lived forty-tliree years in the central part of 
Sheffield, in a locality known as "Hartshead," over the 
book-store kept by the Misses Gales, sisters of Joseph, and 
the place of publication of Tlie Iris ; the sisters had been 
members of his honsehold. He now removed, with the two 
surviving sisters (1836), to " a new home at ' The Mount,' " 
a block of newly erected houses, beautifully situated on a 
swell of land skirting the south side of the city. 

The next year, he again lectured at the Royal Institu- 
tion, and delivered a course on "The Principal British 
Poets." In 1838, he repeated the lectures before the Phi- 
losophical Society at Bristol ; also, at Birmingham, and at 
Worcester. In 1849, he published a new edition, thor- 
oughly revised, of the Moravian Hymn-Book, containing 
1,260 hymns. His last work was ih^ publication, February 
1, 1853, of his " Original Hymns for Public, Social, and 
Private Devotion." 

A slight i^aralytic stroke earlj^ in 1849, followed by an 
illness of three months, had greatly reduced his strength 
and impaired his vitality. A second stroke, on the night 
of the 29th of April, 1854, dejjrived him of all conscious- 
ness, and, on the afternoon of Sunday, the 30th, of life 
itself. He was spared the pains and terrors of death : 

" Heard ye the sobs of parting breath ? 
Marked ye the eye's last ray ? 
No ! — life so sweetly ceased to be, 
It lapsed in immortality." 

He died in his eighty-third year, and was honored mth a 
public funeral, the whole town, as it were, taking part in 
the ceremonial, and testifying thus to the greatness of their 
loss. Like Watts and Cowper, both of whom he greatly 
admired as Christian lyrists, he never married. 

" Father of eternal grace ! " etc., 

appeared (1808) in W. Gardiner's " Sacred Melodies." That 
beautiful and stirring hymn, beginning with 

" Hark! the song of Jubilee," 



JAMES MONTGOMERY. 443 

was " composed for the Anniversary of the Missionary So- 
ciety, and sung at the Spa Fields Chapel, May 14, 1818." 
It was published in the July Number of the Edangelical 
Magazine., for 1818. He was associated with the Rev. 
Thomas Cotterill, of St. Paul's, Sheffield, in the compila- 
tion of an enlarged edition (1819) of his " Selection of 
Psalms and Hymns for the Use of St. Paul's and St. James' 
Churches, Sheffield," to which he contributed about sixty 
original hymns. Among them is found, 

" Prayer is the soul's sincere desire," etc. 

The Rev. Edward H. Bickersteth, in the Notes to his 
" Hymnal Companion," says : " This hymn was wiitten by 
J. Montgomery (1818) at the request of the late Rev. E. 
Bickersteth, for his Treatise on Prayer," printed "at the 
close of the year 1818." 

That beautiful paraphrase of the 72d Psalm, 

" Hail to the Lord's Anointed ! " etc., 

was introduced by him, at the close of a speech, on the 
occasion of a missionary meeting in the Wesleyan Chapel, 
Liverpool, April 14, 1822, and was included with his other 
paraphrases, in his " Songs of Zion," published the same 
year. 

*' Gro to dark Gethsemane," etc., 

is traced to the Leeds Selection, published in 1822. One 
of his latest effusions was prepared for a Bible Society 
meeting, at Sheffield, November 13, 1848, and is full of 
beautiful turns of thought and expression : 

" The sunbeams, infinitely small, 

In numbers numberless, 
Eeveal, pervade, illumine all 

Nature's void wilderness : 
But, meeting worlds upon their way, 

Wrapt in primeval night, 
In language without sound, they say 

To each — ' God sends you light ! ' 



444 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Anon, -with beauty, life and love, 

Those wandering planets glow, 
And shine themselves as stars above, 

On gazers from below. 
Oh ! could the first archangel's eye, 

In everlasting space, 
Through all the mazes of the sky 

A single sunbeam trace, 
He might behold that lovely one 

Its destiny fulfil, 
As punctual as the parent sun 

Performs its Maker's will. 
The Sun of righteousness with rays 

Of uncreated light, 
His power and glory thus displays, 

Through Nature's darkest night. 
Rays from that Sun of righteousness 

Our humble missiles dart: 
Mighty at once to wound and bless. 

To break and bind the heart. 
And could the first archangel's sight 

The least of these pursue, 
He might record, in its brief flight, 

Each had a work to do." 



HEJS^RY MOORE. 

1732-1802. 

HEisrEY Moore was an Arian pastor in the West of Eng- 
land. His father, whose name he bore, and whose faith he 
espoused, was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of 
Plymouth, England. His mother was a daughter of Will- 
iam Bellew, of Stockleigh Court, Devonshire. He was born 
at PljTiiouth, March 30, 1732, and received his rudimentary 
education from his father. At an early age, he was sent to 
the grammar-school of the Rev. Mr. Bedford, afterwards 
the Vicar of King Charles the Martyr's Church, Plymouth. 
In 1749, he entered the Academy of the Rev. Dr. Dodd- 



HENRY MOORE. 445 

ridge, at Northampton, where he remained six yeaie. At 
the decease of Doddridge (1751) he wrote an elegiac poem 
in affectionate memory of his revered teacher, which was 
published, and spoken of as " a tribute of elegant fancy 
and warm affection." The Academy was conducted, dur- 
ing his last three years of study, by the Rev. Dr. Ash- 
worth. 

On leaving the Academy, he was chosen (1756) the min- 
ister of a congregation at Dulverton, Somersetshire ; and 
the following year, he became the pastor of a Dissenting 
congregation at Modbury, where, in the quiet performance 
of his ministerial duties, he continued thirty years and 
more. After the publication (1780) of Madan's "Thelyp- 
thora," he published, anonymously, a reply to the obnox- 
ious theory, characterized by "much humor and vivacity." 
He removed, in 1788, to the romantic town of Liskeard, 
among the tin mines of Cornwall, where, in charge of a 
Dissenting congregation, he passed the remaining years of 
his uneventful life. He died unmarried, November 2, 1802, 
in his seventy-first year. 

He was mild and gentle in manners, and performed his 
duties in great contentment, thankfulness, and humility. 
Endowed with poetic talents, quite superior, he was scarcely 
known to the outside world. His critical abilities, also, 
were of a high order, as appears from his large contribu- 
tions to the two volumes of " Commentaries and Essays," 
published by the " Society for Promoting the Knowledge 
of the Scriptures." In 1795, at the solicitation of his 
nephew, a surgeon at Plymouth, he published, in twenty 
pages 4to, " Private Life, a Moral Rhapsody, written at a 
Gentleman's Country Residence," — "a very spirited and 
beautiful poem." He was, also, induced, the last year of 
his life, to prepare a manuscript volume of his poems for 
publication. In consequence of a paralytic affection, result- 
ing in the author's death, the Rev. Dr. Aiken kindly under- 
took to carry the volume through the press. It was issued 
the following year (1803) with the title, — " Poems, Lyrical 
and Miscellaneous." 



446 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

THOMAS MOORE. 

1779-1852. 

The Sacred Songs of Thomas Moore are thirty-two in 
number. Some of them are so beautiful, as to occasion 
regret that they bear such a small proportion to the songs, 
and sonnets, and poems, that are found in his works : — re- 
gret that one so gifted with the true jDoetic afflatus, should 
have prostituted his rare talents to such unworthy purposes. 
As a man of pleasure, without the least apparent experience 
of true godliness, he scarcely deserves a place among the 
poets of the Christian Church. 

He was a native of Dublin, of humble origin, and born 
May 28, 1779. He was precocious ; of marked promise at 
an early age ; his mother's pride, and much indebted to her 
teachings. At fourteen, he found a place for his verse in a 
Dublin Magazine, called The Anthologla Hibernica. Long 
before this, he had begun "to act, sing, and rhyme." The 
famous Samuel Whyte was his school-master. Early in 
1794, he had begun his translation of the Odes of Anac- 
reon. In the summer of the same year, he entered Trin- 
ity College, Dublin, graduating in 1798. In his twentieth 
year (1799), he left Ireland, came to London, and entered 
himself a student of law, at the Middle Temple. 

He published the "Odes of Anacreon translated into 
English Verse with ]N"otes," by subscription, in 1800. The 
next year, he issued what purported to be "Tlie Poetical 
Works of the late Thomas Little," his own " Juvenile 
Poems," as they are called, expurgated^ in his "Works." 
In 1803, he sent forth "A Candid Appeal to Public Confi- 
dence"; and, the same year, was appointed Registrar of 
the Admiralty Court in Bermuda. Resigning his post to a 
deputy at the end of fourteen months, he left Bermuda, and 
made a tour of the United States. He returned home in 
1806, and published his " Epistles, Odes, and other Poems," 
mostly relating to America. " Corruption, a Poetic Epis- 



THOMAS MOOEE. 447 

tie," and " Intolerance, a Satire," appeared in 1808, followed 
by "The Sceptic, a Philosophical Satire," in 1809 — ^none of 
which were successful. 

For several years, he led a life of gaiety, at London and 
Dublin ; and, March 25, 1811, he married Bessy Dyke, one 
of the actresses of a private theatre at Kilkenny, where 
he himself had taken i3art in the performances. After 
a short residence in London, he took a house at Keg- 
worth, Leicestershire, near the seat of his patron, the Earl 
of Moira. "M. P., or the Blue Stocking; a Comic Opera," 
appeared in 1811. The next year, he brought out his ex- 
ceedingly popular " Intercepted Letters ; or The Twopenny 
Post Bag," a series of political squibs. He now removed 
(1813) to Ashbourne, Derbyshire, where he resided four 
years. The first instalment of his "Irish Melodies," the 
most popular of all his works, appeared in 1813 ; his " Na- 
tional Melodies," in 1815 ; his " Sacred Songs," in 1816 ; 
and " Lalla Rookh ; an Oriental Romance," in 1817, shortly 
after his removal to Hornsey, in Middlesex. 

After a trip with the poet Rogers to Paris, he published, 
in 1818, " The Fudge Family in Paris," and, the same year, 
an edition of Sheridan's Dramatic Works. " Tom Crib's 
Memorial to Congress " came out in 1819. Soon after his 
return from Paris, he had, on the invitation of the Marquis 
of Lansdowne, taken up his abode at Sloperton Cottage, 
near Bowood, Wiltshire. The deputy whom he had left in 
charge of his office at Bermuda proving false, he became 
liable to the extent of £6,000, and, to avoid an attachment 
on his property, he repaired (September, 1819) to Paris, 
thence travelled with Lord John Russell to Italy, and, as 
the result, Avrote his "Rhymes on the Road." He also 
visited Lord Byron (with whom he was on terms of great 
intimacy) at Venice ; and while there wrote his " Fables 
for the Holy Alliance." These two productions, as also 
"The Loves of the Angels," were published in 1823. He 
returned home the same year, the claim against him having 
been reduced to 1,000 guineas, and liquidated in 1822. 

Other publications now followed: "Miscellaneous Poems"; 



448 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

"Memoirs of Captain Rock" (1824); "Memoirs of Sheri- 
dan" (1825); "The Epicurean; a Tale" (1827); "Letters 
and Journals of Lord BjTon, with Notices of his Life" 
(1830); "The Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald" (1831); 
"The Summer Fete" (1831) ; "Travels of an Irish Gentle- 
man in search of a Religion" (1833) ; and his "History of 
Ireland " (1835), written for Lardner's " Cabinet Cyclopaedia." 
The same year, a civil-list pension of £300 was granted him. 
In 1841-42, he jjublished his x^oetical works, in ten volumes. 
His declining years were much clouded with affliction. He 
died, after three years of mental imbecility, at Sloperton 
Cottage, February 26, 1852, in his seventy-third year. 

His "Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence, edited by 
the Right Honorable Lord John Russell," appeared (1853- 
56) in eight volumes. Moore was full of the poetic spirit. 
He wrote with wonderful ease, and often with remarkable 
sweetness. " Of all the song- writers," says Prof. Wilson, 
"that ever warbled, or chanted, or sung, the best, in our 
estimation, is verily none other than Thomas Moore. His 
' Irish Melodies ' are full of true feeling and delicacy ; 
they are musical almost beyond parallel in words — grace- 
ful in thought -and sentiment — often tender, pathetic, and 
heroic, equally the delight of the cottage and the saloon." 
Moore was a musician as well as a poet, and sang his own 
songs with a spirit and life that charmed the circles of the 
great and noble, where he was a welcome visitor. The fol- 
lowing specimen is from his "Sacred Songs" (1816) : 

" Since first thy word awaked my heart, 

Like new life dawning o'er me, 
Where'er I turn mine eyes. Thou art, 

All light and love before me ; 
Naught else I feel, or hear, or see, — 

All bonds of earth I sever ; 
Tliee, O God ! and only thee 

I live for, now and ever. 

" Like him whose fetters dropped away, 
When light shone o'er his prison, 
My spirit, touched by Mercy's ray, 
Hath from her chams arisen : 



THOMAS MOREL!.. 

And shall a soul, Thou bidd'st be free, 
Eetum to bondage ? — Never! 

Thee, O Grod! and only thee 
I live for, now and ever." 



THOMAS MORELL. 

1781-1840. 

The Academy over whicli tlie Rev. Dr. Doddridge so 
ably presided at Northampton, England, about the middle 
of the last century, was, by a series of mutations, trans- 
ferred at length to the city of London, and placed in con- 
nection v/ith the University of London, by the name of 
Coward College, being located in Byng Place, Torrington 
Square, near the University. The Rev. Thomas Morell 
had, in 1821, become the successor of Dr. Doddridge, as 
Theological Tutor. 

Prof. Morell was, as his name would indicate, of Hugue- 
not origin, his ancestors having fled to England, from Pa- 
pal persecution, in the seventeenth century. He was born 
(1781) at Maldon, Essex, and was educated by his two broth- 
ers. Rev. John Morell, LL.D., and Rev. Stephen Morell, 
and subsequently at Homerton College, near London, un- 
der the tuition of the Rev. Dr. John Pye Smith. In 1801, 
he became the pastor of the Congregational Church of St. 
Neot's, a considerable market-town, on the Ouse. Faithful 
in the performance of his duties, as a preacher and a pas- 
tor, he found time for literary pursuits, the fruit of which 
appeared in " Studies in History, in a Series of Essays, ac- 
companied with Reflections, References to Original Au- 
thorities, and Historical Exercises for Youth." The first, 
containing " The History of Greece, from its earliest Period 
to its final Subjugation by the Romans," appeared in 1813. 
The second, being " The History of Rome, from its earliest 
29 



450 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Records to the Death of Constantine," followed in 1815. 
Two volumes, on " The History of England, from the ear- 
liest Eecords to the Death of George III.," were issued in 
1818 and 1820. He published, also (1809), " The Christian 
Pastor ; a Poem. In three Books," and several Occasional 
Sermons. 

After a successful ministry of twenty years, he was ap- 
pointed (1821) as successor of the Rev. Mr. Atkinson, the 
President of Wymondley College, Hertfordshire. In 1827, 
he published " Elements of the History of Philosophy and 
Science," — an abstract, mainlj^, of the Histories of Stanley 
and Enfield. The College, in the autumn of 1833, was re- 
moved to London, and was, thenceforth, called "Coward 
College," in honor of its munificent patron. Mr. Morell 
continued to preside over it with great credit to himself 
and advantage to the Institution, until 1839, when his 
health was seriously impaired. He lingered nearly a year, 
much of the time in severe pain, borne with the utmost 
resignation and Christian patience ; and, March 25, 1840, he 
departed this life, sincerely and universally lamented. He 
was held in high esteem for piety, talents, and ability, by 
the Dissenting ministry and churches. He had, shortly 
before his last illness, intimated his intention to retire from 
the presidency of the College, and to prepare for the press 
" Memoirs of the Life and Times of Doddridge," for which 
he was eminently qualified. 

The hymns beginning 

" Father of mercies! condescend," 

and 

" Go, and the Saviour's grace proclaim," 

are found in the December Number of the London Man- 
f/elical Ifagazine, for 1818. They were "composed for a 
Missionary Ordination Service, and sung at the Rev. Mr. 
Morell's Chapel, St. Neot's, October 28, 1818, at the Ordi- 
nation of Mr. C[harles] Mault, Missionary to India,"— and 
a member of Mr. Morell's church. He %^Tote several other 
hymns on special occasions, besides an Elegy on the Death 



JOHN MORRISON. 451 

of the Princess Charlotte (1817). The following lines are 
from the third Book of his "Christian Pastor": 

" Come, but with hallowed feet approach, and view 
The Christian Pastor's death. His end is peace. 
Ah ! with what silent eloquence it pleads 
The cause of Truth, flashing conviction's glaxe 
E'en on the haughtiest, boldest infidel ! 
What tranquil pleasures sit upon his brow, 
Where slowly trickles the cold sweat of death! 
What sacred raptures, what immortal joys, 
Burst from his lips, and sparkle in his eye ! " 



JOHN MORRISON. 

1749-1798. 

A committee, of which the Rev. Dr. Hugh Blair, the 
Rev. Dr. John Morrison, the Rev. John Logan, and the 
Rev. William Cameron, were members, was appointed (1775) 
by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to re- 
vise the " Translations and Paraphrases," attached to the 
Old Version of "The Psalms of David in Metre." Six 
years later (1781), the Paraphrases were published in their 
present form (67 in number), with five hymns. The Para- 
phrases 19, 21, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 35, are attributed to Dr. 
Morrison, either in whole or in part. 

Dr. Morrison was born (1749) in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. 
After the usual educational and theological course of study, 
his " Trials " were sustained by his Presbytery, and he was' 
ordained (1780) the pastor of the parish of Canisbay, Caith- 
ness-shire, where he continued until his death, June 12, 1798, 
in his fiftieth year. His scholarship brought him from 
the University the honorary degree of D.D. He was a fre- 
quent contributor, as " Musseus," to the poetic columns of 
the Edinburgh WeeJdy Magazine. He published (1787) 
an English version of the second and fourth Books of Vir- 
gil's iEneid. 



452 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG. 

1796-1877. 

Dr. Muhlenberg was of German descent, and Lutliei-an 
lineage. His grandfather, Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlen- 
berg, D.D. [1711-1787], of Eimbeck, Hanover, was the pa- 
triarch of the Lutheran Church in America. He came to 
Philadelphia, Pa., as a missionary, in 1742, but late in 
life resided at the Trappe, Montgomery Co., Pa. His 
" Life and Times," by M. L. Stoever, has been published 
by the Lutheran Board of Publication. 

He had three sons, all of whom became clergymen : John 
Peter Gabriel [1746-1807], Frederick Augustus [17.50-1801], 
and Gotthilf Henry Ernst [1753-1815]. They were sent to 
Germany, in 1762, to be educated. Peter obtained orders 
(1772) in the Church of England, and, on his return to 
America, officiated awhile ; but, on the breaking out of the 
Revolutionary War, entered the army, and eventually be- 
came a Major-General of the Revolutionary Army, a Rep- 
resentative and Senator of the U. S., and Collector of the 
Port of Philadelphia. Frederick was ordained in Germany, 
officiated as a Lutheran minister in Philadelphia and New 
York, entered Congress, and became the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives in the First Congress, and again 
in the Third. Henry was pastor of the Lutheran Church 
of Lancaster, Pa., from 1780, until his death in 1815. 

William Augustus was the son of Frederick Augustus, 
and was born, September 16, 1796, at Philadelphia, Pa. He 
was educated in the University of Pennsylvania, Philadel- 
phia, where he graduated in 1814. After a suitable prepara- 
tion, he was ordained (1817) a deacon, by Bishop AVhite, of 
Philadelphia. Three years later, he was ordained to the 
priesthood, and, in 1823, became the Associate Rector of 
St. James' Church, Lancaster, and St. John's, Pequea, Pa. 
The same year he published, " Church Poetry : being Por- 
tions of the Psalms in Verse, and Hymns suited to the 



WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG. 453 

Festivals and Fasts and various Occasions of tlie Cliurch ; 
selected and arranged from various Authors." He removed, 
in 1826, to Flushing, N. Y., and founded the Flushing In- 
stitute, afterwards known as St. Paul's College, — over 
which he presided, with great success, for sixteen years. 
At the same time, he held the Rectorship of St. George's 
Church, Flushing. 

In 1846, he became the Rector of the Church of the Holy 
Communion, New York, which position he retained until 
1859. In 1855, with great labor and unwearied assiduity, 
he founded St. Luke's Hospital, New York, and was its 
Pastor and Superintendent until his death, — "the most 
devoted servant, day and night, within its kindly walls. " 
He founded, also, in 1865, St. Johnland, a home for various 
classes of the needy. He died, Sunday, April 8, 1877, in 
his eighty-first year. He was honored (1834) by Columbia 
College, New York, with the degree of D.D. 

Dr. Muhlenberg developed much taste and skill as a 
musical composer. In conjunction with the Rev. Dr. Jon- 
athan M. Wainwright (afterwards Bishop), he published 
(1828) "Music of the Church," to accompany the New 
Episcopal Selection of Psalms and Hymns. He edited, 
also, in whole or in part, at various times : "A Chant Book 
for the Church "; " The People's Psalter "; and " The Choir 
and Family Psalter"; also, in 1859, as Chairman of a Com- 
mittee appointed by the House of Bishops, a " Tune Book 
for the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church." 

He published (1853), " Letters on Protestant Sisterhoods "; 
and sent forth, on several occasions, valuable sermons and 
religious pamphlets ; but, as an author, he is chiefly known 
by his popular hymn, beginning with 

"I would not live alway, — I ask not to stay." 

It first appeared, anonymously, June 3, 1826, in the Epis- 
copal Recorder of Philadelphia, in six double stanzas. It 
was abridged by the Rev. Dr. Henry U. Onderdonk, and 
in this form incorporated into the New Selection of Hymns 
adopted by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church 



454 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

of that year. The following, also, is from the pen of Dr 
Muhlenberg : 

" Saviour! who thy flock art feeding, 

With the shepherd's kindest care, 
All the feeble gently leading, 

While the lambs thy bosom share ; 
Now, these little ones receiving, 

Fold them in thy gracious arm ; 
There, we know, thy word believing, 

Only there secm-e from harm. 

" Never, from thy pasture roving. 

Let them be the lion's prey ; 
Let thy tenderness, so loving. 

Keep them all life's dangerous way : 
Then, within thy fold eternal. 

Let them find a resting place, 
Feed in pastures ever vernal, 

Di'ink the rivers of thy grace." 



JOHN MASON NEALE. 

1818-1866. 

Dr. Neale was a native of London, England, and the 
son of the Rev. Cornelius Neale. He was born Janu- 
ary 24, 1818, and was educated at Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, where he graduated, A.B., 1840, and A.M., 1845. 
He was distinguished for his poetic gifts, and his attain- 
ments in the languages, ancient and modern. Repeatedly 
he obtained the prize for the best sacred poem in English. 
He was ordained deacon in 1841, and priest in 1842. The, 
same year (1842), he married Sarah Norman, a daughter of 
Rev. Thomas Webster, B.D. In May, 1846, he was ap- 
pointed the Warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, 
Sussex, — a position that he held through life. 

His antiquarian and ritualistic tastes were early devel- 



JOHN MASON NEALE. 455 

oped. In 1841, lie published, •' Tlie History of Pews : A 
Paper read before the Cambridge Camden Society"; in 
1842, "Herbert Tresham, a Tale of the Great Rebellion"; 
and in 1843, " Agnes de Tracey, a Tale of the Times of St. 
Thomas of Canterbury"; "Ayton Priory"; "Hierologus, 
or the Church Tourists"; and a Translation of Bishop Du- 
randas' Work on " The Symbolism of Churches and Church 
Ornaments." He had now become a very active member of 
the Ecclesiological Society, and eagerly prosecuted studies 
of that description. " Shepperton Manor, a Tale of the Time 
of Bishop Andrewes," appeared in 1844, and a Letter " On 
Private Devotion in Churches"; in 1845, "A Mirror of 
Faith : Lays and Legends of the Church in England"; and 
in 1846, "Annals of Virgin Saints"; "The Loosing of the 
Euphratean Angels," a prize poem ; and " The Triumphs of 
the Cross." 

These smaller works (the enumeration of which is chiefly 
of importance as showing the di'ift of his studies) were fol- 
lowed, in 1847, by a work of sterling value, — " A History of 
the Holy Eastern Church. — A History of the Patriarchate 
of Alexandria," in two volumes ; also, the same year, 
"Stories from the Heathen Mythology"; in 1848, by 
" Ecclesiological Notes on the Isle of ISIan, Sutherland, and 
the Orkneys"; and, in 1849, by "Few Words of Hope on 
the present Crisis of the English Church." The " Victories 
of the Saints," and " Readings for the Aged " (for whom 
Sackville College was instituted), followed in 1850 ; " Even- 
ings at Sackville College," and " Lectures on Church Diffi- 
culties," in 1851. 

His "Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences," published in 
1852, attracted much attention, and furnished material for 
several excellent and popular hymns ; also, his " Hymni 
Ecclesise." He had previously, at various times, issued, in 
three-penny tracts : " Hymns for the Young "; " Hymns for 
Children," in two series; "Hymns for the Sick"; "Songs 
for the People"; and "Songs and Ballads for Manufactu- 
rers." His remaining works are as follows: "Pilgrim's 
Progress for the Use of the Children of the English 



456 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Churcli," and "Carols for Christmas-Tide" (1853); "A 
Hand-book for Travellers in Portugal" (1855) ; "Tlie Life 
and Times of Bishop Torry " (1856) ; " Theodora Phranza : 
a Tale of the Fall of Constantinople," and "Mediaeval 
Preachers, and Mediaeval Preaching" (1857); "A History 
of the So-Called Jansenist Church of Holland " (1858) ; " A 
Commentary on the Psalms, from Primitive and Mediaeval 
Writers " (1860) ; " Hymns of the Eastern Church," and 
"Essays on Liturgiology and Church History" (1863). 
" Sermons for Children " (1867) appeared posthumously. 

It wiU readily appear from the list of his publications, 
that Dr. Neale was an indefatigable worker. Excessive 
literary labor, and exhausting works of benevolence, wore 
him out at a comparatively early age. He died at home, 
August 6, 1866, in his forty-ninth year, in humble faith and 
peaceful hope. 

He excelled greatly in the versification of the ancient 
Greek and Latin Hymns, and found great delight in the 
occupation : " Some of the happiest and most instructive 
hour's of my life," he says, " were spent in the Sub-Com- 
mittee of the Ecclesiological Society, appointed for the pur- 
pose of bringing out the Second Part of the Hymnal Noted. 
It was my business to lay before them the translations I had 
prepared, and theirs to correct." Many of his hymns and 
translations were contributions, also, to " Hymns Ancient 
and Modern," and the "People's Hymnal." His "Jerusa- 
lem " hymns are general favorites. All his translations were 
in " the exact measure and rhyme of the original," with the 
single exception of the " quatrain " rhymes, for which he 
substituted "couplets." His original hymns partake con- 
siderably of the mediaeval style which he had so long and 
faithfully studied. The following is a fair specimen : 

" O very God of very God, 
And very Light of Light ! 
Whose feet this earth's dark valley trod, 
That so it might be bright ! — 

" Our hopes are weak, our fears are strong, 
Thick darkness blinds our eyes ; 



JOACHIM NEANDER. 457 

Cold is the night, — and, Oh! we long 
That thou, our Sun, wouldst rise ! 

And even now, though dull and grey, 

The east is brightening fast, 
And kindling to the perfect day 

That never shall be past. 

Oh ! guide us till our {)ath is done, 

And we have reached the shore, 
Where thou, our everlasting Sun, 

Art shining evermore." 



JOACHIM NEANDER. 

1640-1680. 

Joachim Neaistder was born at Bremen, Germany, in 
1640, of parents in easy circumstances, and in early youth 
was careless and wild. A sermon by the venerable pastor 
(Undereyk) of St. Martin's Church, deeply affected him. 
He had gone to the church with two of his gay comrades, 
to make sport, but came away in tears. An interview with 
the pastor deepened his convictions. He began to seek his 
soul's salvation, parted from his wild associates, and aban- 
doned his former life of folly. 

He was still i3assionately fond of hunting. On one occa- 
sion, not long after, in his eager pursuit of game, night 
overtook him, and he lost his way among the rocks and 
wooded hills. He wandered about, till he found himself 
on the very edge of a steep precipice, where another step 
forward would have ended his life. He now fell on his 
knees in prayer, and vowed to give himself up to God's 
service. He then resumed his search for a way of escape, 
and speedily, as if led by a divine hand, succeeded in find- 
ing the well-known path to his home. He kept his vow, 
and became a new man. 

Having finished his course at the University, he accom- 



458 • THE POETS OF THE CHUECH, 

panied some of his wealthy fellow-students to Frankfort, 
and engaged in teaching. Here he made the acquaintance 
of the godly Philip J. Spener, who was about five years 
older than himself, and who subsequently became the ac- 
knowledged head of the Pietists of Germany. Neander 
was introduced to the circle of religious people with whom 
Spener was associated, and greatly profited by this pious 
intercourse. In 1674, he was appointed Head-Master of 
the Reformed grammar-school at Dusseldorf, and acquired 
great reputation as a teacher. He, also, established pri- 
vate religious meetings among the people, and occasionally 
preached with great fervor in the town church. He was 
accused of heresy, and the elders of the church proceeded 
to the school, arraigned him for his irregularities, and de- 
posed him. It was summer, and he found refuge in a deep 
and beautiful glen, near Mettman on the Rhine, and lived 
some months in a cave, since called by his name. 

In this lone retreat he composed his " Song of Summer," 
and many other beautiful hymns. At length, after vari- 
ous vicissitudes, he was called, in 1679, to be the second 
preacher, with his spiritual father, Undereyk, at St. Mar- 
tin's, Bremen. Here, too, his zeal and fervor, in preaching 
the humbling doctrines of the Cross, stirred up the hatred 
and opposition of his townsmen and kindred. A severe 
illness, the following year, brought him to the grave. He 
died. May 31, 1680, in the full assurance of faith. He com- 
posed seventy- one hymns, many of which h^, also, set to 
music. Miss Winkworth calls him " the most important 
hymn- writer of the German Reformed Church, whose pro- 
ductions are marked by great depth and tenderness of feel- 
ing." 



JOHIS" NEEDHAM. 

But little information is now accessible respecting John 
Needham. He comes into notice, first, as pastor of a Bap- 
tist church in the market- town of Hitchin, a romantic spot, 



JOHN NEEDHAM. 459 

of historic fame, in HertfordsMre, England. As was often 
the case, in those days, among the Dissenters, he supported 
himself in part by teaching ; among his pupils, previous 
to 1740, was the Rev. Benjamin Wallin, himself a hymn- 
writer. Needham removed to Bristol, in 1746, and was 
associated with the Rev. John Beddome, in the pastorate 
of the Baj)tist Church in the Pithay, Bristol. 

In consequence of a controversy, growing out of the co- 
pastorship of the church, Mr. Needham was deprived (1752) 
of his position, and, with a portion of the congregation, 
formed a new church, over which he presided as pastor, in 
Callowhill, also a part of Bristol, until the year 1787. His 
death, probably, occurred at this date. 

He wrote a large number of hymns, and, in 1768, pub- 
lished them \vith the title, — " Hymns Devotional and Mor- 
al, on various Subjects. Collected chieliy from the Holy 
Scriptures, and Suited to the Christian State and Wor- 
ship." It contains 263 hymns, some of which are now in 
use, and are much esteemed. Eighteen of them are found 
in Dobell's Selection. The most of them, however, are 
quite inferior. His Advent Hymn, as modified by Dobell, 
is one of his best : 

"Awake! awake! ai'ise! 

And hail the glorious morn ; 
Hark ! how the angels sing, 

' To you a Saviour 's born ! ' 
Now let our hearts in concert move, 
And every tongue be tuned by love. 

"He mortals came to save 

From sin's tyrannic power: 
Come, with the angels sing 

At this auspicious hour ; 
Let eveiy heart and tongue combine, 
To praise the love, the grace divine. 

" The pi'ophecies and types 
Ai-e all this day fulfilled; 
With eastern sages join, 
To praise this wondrous child; 



460 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

God's only Son is come to bless 

The earth with peace and righteousness. 

" Glory to God on high, 

For om* Inimanuel's birth 1 
To mortal men good-will, 

And peace and joy on earth ! 
With angels now we will repeat 
Their songs, still new and ever sweet." 



DAVID NELSON. 
1793-1844. 

David Nelson was the son of Henry Nelson and Anna 
Kelsey, of Jonesboro', East Tennessee, where he was born, 
September 24, 1793. His parents were natives of Rock- 
bridge Co., Va. His father, a ruling elder in the Presby- 
terian Church, Avas of English parentage ; his mother was 
of Scotch i^arentage, and a woman of remarkable vigor of 
intellect, and spiritual fervor. At Washington College, 
only two miles from his home, he received an excellent 
education, graduating at the age of sixteen. His elder 
brother, Samuel K. Nelson, had become the pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church of Danville, Ky., and had married a 
daughter of Gov. Shelby. Another daughter of the Gov- 
ernor married Dr. Ephraim McDowell, and with him David 
Entered upon the study of medicine, completing his course, 
and taking his degree of M.D. (1812), in the city of Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Though but nineteen years of age, he became the surgeon 
of a Kentucky regiment in the war with Great Britain : 
and, on an expedition to Canada, was subjected to extreme 
privations and toils, naiTowly escaping death. His experi- 
ence during a campaign in Alabama and Florida was similar. 
At the close of the war, he returned to his native place, and 
suonessfully engaged in medical practice ; at which time, 



DAVID NELSON. 461 

also (1815), lie nQarried an accomplislied young woman, tlie 
daughter of David Deaderick, a prosperous merchant of 
the neighborhood. 

Dr. Nelson had, early in life, become a member of the 
Presbyterian Church ; but evil associations, both at Dan- 
ville and in the army, had corrupted his morals, and viti- 
ated his principles. He became a card-playing, fun-loving 
infidel. A big, burly man, he was readily accepted as a 
master spirit, popular and powerful. But an early-trained 
conscience successfully asserted its supremacy. He re- 
solved to read both sides, A thought in Doddridge's 
" Rise and Progress " arrested his attention. He read on, 
and his infidelity was gone. He now (1823) reunited with 
the church, abandoned his profession (though of lucrative 
promise), and, having studied theology, under the direction 
of the Rev. Robert Glenn, of Kingsport, Tenn., he w^as, in 
April, 1825, licensed by the Presbytery of Abingdon. The 
next October he was ordained, at Rogersville, Tenn., as an 
evangelist. 

During the next three years, he was associated with two 
other preachers, of well-earned fame, Frederick A. Ross 
and James Gallaher, in conducting TTie Calmnistic Maga- 
zine (a monthly of marked ability), preaching continu- 
ally, but without a fixed charge. His brother, Samuel, 
having died, in 1827, he succeeded to the vacant pulpit 
at Danville, Ky. In 1830, he removed to Marion Co., 
in the northeastern section of Missouri, and founded, at 
Greenfields, a manual-labor college, known as Marion Col- 
lege, of which he became the first President, — succeeded, in 
1835, by the Rev. William S. Potts, of St. Louis. In 1836, 
owing to a violent agitation of the community, growing 
out of the discussion of Slavery, he was compelled to aban- 
don his new home, and take refuge in a free State. He ob- 
tained lands about five miles from Quincy, Hlinois, and 
founded another manual-labor institute. He had become 
subject to frequent attacks of epilepsy, by which, at length, 
his intellect was considerably impaired. They terminated 
in his death, at his home in Oakland, October 17, 1844. 



462 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

He wrote, and pnblislied in 1837, his " Cause and Cure of 
Infidelity," a book, like its author, sui generis, and won- 
derfully adapted to the current of thought in the newer 
portions of America. It was " written with the design of 
urging the multitude to become informed concerning the 
Book of Books, the Bible." Its success has been great. 
It is full of the author's peculiarities, and suggestive of 
his style of preaching. The American Tract Society adopted 
and published it in 1841. It has also been published in 
England. 

In the pulpit, he was very unequal ; at times, he was 
overpowering. Dr. Ross, one of his most intimate friends, 
says: "Nelson was the most fascinating preacher I ever 
heard"; and Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge testifies: "lean 
ti'uly say, his power in the pulpit exceeded all I ever wit- 
nessed." But he w^as a man of impulse. If he was not in 
a fitting mood, or did not feel at home, he would cut short 
his discourse within ten or twelve minutes and dismiss the 
congregation. 

The hymn beginning 

" My days are gliding swiftly by," 

was improvised, as his custom was, to be sung to the tune of 
" Lord Ullin's Daughter," of which Mr. Root's tune, usually 
sung to these words, is but a variation. Two others of his 
hymns are to be found in the Rev. James Gallaher's Selec- 
tion, published as a Supplement to his edition of Watts' 
Psalms and Hymns (Cincinnati, 1835). 



EDWm H. NEVIN. - 

1814 . 

Dr. Nevin is the son of Major David Nevin, of Ship- 
pensburgh. Pa., where he was born, May 9, 1814. He was 
educated at Jefferson College, Canonsburgh, Pa., gradua- 



EDWIN H. NEVIN. 463 

ting there in 1833. He prosecuted tlie study of theology 
at Princeton Seminary, and, in 1836, was licensed to preach, 
by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. He began his ministry 
as a Home Missionary in Ohio. In 1838, he supplied the 
Presbyterian Church of Poland, of which he was (June 25, 
1839) ordained the pastor, by the Presbytery of New Lis- 
bon. He was dismissed, April 20, 1841, and, shortly after, 
he became the President of Franklin College, !N"ew Athens, 
Ohio, and the Stated Supply of the Presbyterian Church of 
the town. He accepted, in 1845, a call to the j)astorate of 
the Presbyterian Church of Mount Yernon, Ohio, in con- 
nection Avith the Presb;^i;ery of Richland. Here he remained 
about four years. 

Returning to the East, he took charge of the Congrega- 
tional Church of Walpole, Mass., of which he was installed 
the pastor, November 15, 1854. At the same time, he 
united with the Mendon Association. Thence he removed 
to Chelsea, and was installed (April 29, 1857) the pastor of 
the Congregational Church there. Tlu'ee years later (I860), 
he became the acting pastor of the Congregational Church 
of Edgartown, Mass. He retired (1862) from the active 
labors of the ministry, owing to the loss of health, returned 
to Philadelphia, and resided there, without ministerial 
charge, until 1868. He then accepted a call to the pastor- 
ate of St. Paul's Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pa. In 
1870, he received the honorary degree of I).D., from Frank- 
lin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. He returned 
(1871) to Philadelphia, and took charge of the First Re- 
formed Church of that city, where he still resides. 

The following beautiful hymn was contributed by him, 
in 1857, to the "Congregational Hymn-Book": 

" ' Come up hither; come away! ' — 
Thus the ransomed spmts sing; 
' Here is cloudless, endless day, 
Here is everlasting spring. 

" 'Come up hither; come, and dwell 
With the living hosts ahove ; 
Come, and let your bosoms swell 
With their burning songs of love. 



464 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" ' Come up hither; come, and share 
In the sacred joys that rise, 
Like an ocean, everywhere 

Through the myriads of the skies. 

" ' Come up hither; come, and shine 
In the robes of spotless white ; 
Palms, and harps, and crowns are thine ; 
Hither, hither wing your flight. 

" ' Come up hither; hither speed; 
Rest is found in heaven alone ; 
Here is all the wealth you need ; 
Come and make this wealth your own. 



JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. 

1801 . 

In June, 1833, Jolm Henry Newman, on his way from 
Palermo to Marseilles, becalmed in an orange-boat on the 
Mediterranean, "beneath a burning sky," sick and dis- 
pu'ited, lonely and gloomy, in a state of spiritual unrest, 
poured out his soul in the words of the hymn, 

" Lead, kindly light! amid th' encircling gloom." 

He had parted, a few weeks before, with Richard Hurrell 
Froude, with whom he had been travelling for months on 
the Continent. Froude, though two years his junior, had 
exercised a wonderful power over him for five years. Out- 
spoken, ardent, and sanguine, Froude had openly, long 
l^efore, " professed his admiration of the Church of Rome, 
and his hatred of the Reformers." Newman had been 
trained a Protestant and a Calvinist. It had cost him 
numberless struggles, but, stej) by step, he had abandoned 
the teachings of his boyhood, and was already on the verge 
of Romanism. It was in this state that he wrote these 
lines. No wonder that he cries out, 

" The night is dark, and I am far from home." 



JOHN HENEY NEWMAN. 465 

He had written several such stanzas and sonnets, since leav- 
ing home, which appeared in the British Magazine. They 
give unmistakable evidence of a soul far from peace and rest. 
These nnd other similar poetic effusions were gathered 
lOgeLher three years afterwards (1836), and published in 
the "Lyra Apostolica." 

John Henry Newman, the eldest son of John Newman, 
was born February 21, 1801, in London, England, where 
his father was a banker. His training at home was emi- 
nently religious. " I was brought up from a child," he 
says, "to take great delight in reading the Bible." He 
early became visionary, and soon after his conversion at 
the age of fifteen, he imbibed the conviction that God had 
marked out for him a life of celibacy — a conviction never 
shaken. 

He was sent to school at Ealing, under the tuition of the 
Rev. Dr. John Nicholas. Thence (1816) he went to Oxford ; 
entered at Trinity College ; took (1818) a scholarship, by 
election ; graduated in 1820 ; took classical honors, and was 
elected (1822) a Fellow of Oriel College. He now became 
acquainted with John Keble, and intimate with Edward 
Bouverie Pusey, a few months only his senior. He was 
ordained deacon June 13, 1824, and priest. May 28, 1825, by 
the Bishop of Oxford. Dr. Whately, Principal of St. 
Alban's Hall, gave him the appointment (1825) of Vice 
Principal, which, however, he relinquished, when, the fol- 
lowing year, he was appointed a Tutor of Oriel College. 

His intimacy with Froude now began, and was produc- 
tive of marked results. NeAvman himself says : " He made 
me look with admiration towards the Church of Rome, 
and in the same degree to dislike the Reformation. He 
fixed deep in me the idea of devotion to the Blessed Vir- 
gin, and he led me gradually to believe in the Real Pres- 
ence." In the spring of 1828, Newman was preferred to 
the Vicarage of St. Mary's, Oxford. During NeAvman's 
incumbency, St. Mary's became the popular resort of the 
students ; and, under the spell of his magnetic mind, the 
way was prepared for the remarkable spread of "Angli- 
30 



466 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

can " principles, Tractarian doctrines, and, eventually, Pa- 
pal perversions — that marked tlie history of the University 
during the next quarter of a century. 

Newman still retained his academic position. In 1827, 
he was appointed a Public Examiner ; and, in 1830, one of 
the Select University Preachers, He had written, in the 
shape of Essays and Reviews, the " Life and Writings of 
Cicero," the "Life of Apollonius Tyanseus" (1824), "Scrip- 
ture Miracles" (1826), and "Greek Tragedy." At the so- 
licitation of the Rev, Hugh James Rose, he began (1830) 
to write "The Arians of the Fourth Century"; which was 
finished in July, 1832, and published in the autumn of 1833. 
Mr, Rose had started (1832) The Britisli Magazine, ex- 
pressly for the promotion of Anglicanism, and Newman be- 
came a leading contributor to its columns. 

On his return from the Continent (July, 1833), after an 
absence of seven months, in which he had recruited his 
impaired health, Newman and two or three Oriel friends 
began the agitation that led to the issue of the " Tracts for 
the Times." Keble's senrion on "National Apostasy" was 
preached in Newman's church, July 14, 1833. Consulta- 
tion followed. An " Association " was formed in Septem- 
ber. Newman wrote the first two of the "Tracts"; four 
were \\Titten by others ; the 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th 
speedily followed from the pen of Newman, who travelled 
over the country, calling on clergymen, and urging them 
to join "The Movement." Of the smaller Tracts, he Avrote, 
in addition, Nos. 19, 20, 21, 34, 38, 41, 45, and 47. 

He wrote, also, several essays for The Record; and con- 
tributed largely to The British Critic. The cry of " Pop- 
ery ! " was raised, but he had no fear. On he pressed. 
Unconsciously he became the leader of a party, supplied 
chiefly by Oxford. The opposition of the Liberal party 
stimulated them to more vigorous and learned presenta 
tions of their views. Dr. Pusey joined them in 1834 or 

1835. The larger Tracts followed. Of these, Newman 
wrote Nos, 71, 73, 75, 79, 82, 83, 85, and 88, From 1834 to 

1836, he was occupied with " The Prophetical Office of the 



JOHN HENEY NEWMAN. 467 

Clmrcli, viewed relatively to Romanism and Popular Prot- 
estantism," wMch was published in 1837. Several pam- 
phlets, in the meantime, came forth from his prolific pen, 
either in defence, or in the maintenance, of his Anglican- 
ism. " The Church of the Fathers " was among his larger 
works of this period ; ha\ing first appeared in Numbers in 
the British Magazine. In 1837, he wrote his " Essay on 
Justification," published in 1838. 

Froude died, February 28, 1836 ; and Newman, in 1838- 
39, published his " Remains," in two Pai'ts, — Keble assist- 
ing in the work. Alarm, still more loudly, was now ex- 
pressed for the Church. The Romanizing tendency of 
"The Oxford Movement" was more than ever disclosed. 
How could the leaders and abettors of " The Movement " 
subscribe honestly to the Thirty-Nine Articles ? — such was 
every one's inquiry. Newman set himself to the work of 
reconciling this difficulty, and wrote, in the winter of 1840- 
41, his "Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nino 
Articles." It was a labored attempt to reconcile Rome and 
Lambeth. Keble and Pusey approved it, and it was issued 
as Tract No. 90. It is dated, " The Feast of the Conversion 
of St. Paul, 1841," and was published at the close of Feb- 
ruary. 

Great excitement followed its publication. It was prompt- 
ly condemned by the authorities of the University, and by 
the Episcopal bench. An end was put to the Series. New- 
man, sorely disappointed, retired to Littlemore — a charge 
that he held in connection with St. Mary's, Oxford. In 
February, 1843, he made a formal recantation of all that 
he had said against Rome ; in September, 1843, resigned 
both St. Mary's and Littlemore ; and, October 8, 1845, for- 
mally applied to be received into the communion of the 
Church of Rome, leaving Oxford finally, February 23, 184C. 

After a visit to Rome, he was appointed (1848) Father 
Superior of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, at Birmingham ; 
in 1854, he became Rector of the newly founded Roman 
Catholic University at Dublin ; and, in 1858, he removed 
to Edgbaston, near Birmingham, where he established a 



468 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

school for the sons of the Eoman Catholic gentry. In 1879, 
he was created a Cardinal. " By the present Pope, Dr. 
Newman's long services have been rewarded by the highest 
dignity in his power to bestow ; and he added to his gift 
by dispensing Dr. Newman from all those duties and serv- 
ices which might have been burdensome to him at his great 
age, and to one who for so long had lived apart from the 
stir of the world in his peaceful home at Edgbaston." 

He published, at various dates previous to 1844, "Pa- 
rochial Sermons," in 8 vols. ; and, 1844 : " Sermons chiefly 
bearing on Subjects of the Day"; " Sermons, chiefly on the 
Theory of Eeligious Belief, preached before the University 
of Oxford"; "A Translation of the Secret Treatises of St. 
Athanasius"; and an "Essay on the Miracles recorded in 
the Ecclesiastical History of the Early Ages." This last 
was taken from a translation of " The Ecclesiastical History 
of M. L'Abbe Fleury," which Newman edited (1842-44), 
in 3 vols. "An Essay on the Development of Christian 
Doctrine," followed in 1846 ; " Loss and Gain, or a Story 
of a Convert" (1848) ; "Sermons to Mixed Congregations" 
(1849) ; " Lectures on Certain Difliculties felt by Anglicans 
in submitting to the Catholic Church " (1850) ; " Lectures 
on the Present Position of Catholics in England" (1851) ; 
" Lectures on the History of the Turks in its Relation to 
Christianity" (1853) ; " Essays and Lectures on University 
Subjects," 3 vols. (1854-56); " Callista, a Sketch of the 
Third Century " (1856) ; " Sermons preached on Various 
Occasions" (1857); "Apologia pro Vita Sua" (1864); a 
"Collection of Poems" (1868); "An Essay on Assent" 
(1870); and "Mr. Gladstone's Recent Expostulation," and 
" A History of Arianism " (1875). 

Newman's poetry does not equal his prose. The follow- 
ing stanzas, taken from "Lyra Apostolica" (1833), may 
serve as a specimen : 

" Time was, I shrank from what was right, 
From fear of what was wrong-; 
I would not brave the sacred fight, 
Because the foe was strong. 



JOHN NEWTON. 

" But now I cast that finer sense 
And sorer shame aside ; 
Such di'ead of sin was indolence, 
Such aim at heaven was pride. 

" So, when my Savioin* calls, I rise 
And calmly do my best ; 
Leaving to him, with silent eyes 
Of hope and fear, the rest. 

" I step, I mount where he has led; 
Men count my haltings o'er ; — 
I know them ; jet, though self I dread, 
I love his precept more." 



JOHN NEWTON. 

1725-1807. 

The " Olney Hymns," written by Jolin Newton and Will- 
iam Cowper, were first published in 1779, and have proved 
exceedingly useful and acceptable. The larger part of 
Newton's hjinns are poor; but many of them, although 
not to be classed with Cowper's and the best productions 
of lyric poetry, are just such as the people love to sing. 
They were wTitten at the Vicarage of Olney, an unromantic 
spot in Buckinghamshire. The town consisted of a single 
street of stone houses, the most of them thatched with 
straw, with a parish church noted for its lofty spire. New- 
ton and Cowper have given renown to the place and its 
surroundings. Its varied scenery is described in the first 
book of "The Task." 

John Newton was born in London, England, July 24 
(O. S.), August 4 (N. S.), 1725. His father, John, had been 
trained at a Jesuit College in Spain, and for many years 
was master of a ship in the Mediterranean trade. His 
mother, Elizabeth, was connected with the Independent 



470 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Churcli under the care of the Eev. Dr. Jennings. John 
was her only child. She died when he was but seven years 
old. Till then, his training was of the most godly sort. 
His father maiTied again the following year, but the step- 
mother took little heed to the boy's character. In his 
ninth year, he was sent to a boarding-school in Essex, and 
made some progress in Latin. At eleven, his father took 
him to sea, which he followed for four years. At the age 
of fifteen he was placed, with good prospects, at Alicante, 
Spain, but through his unsteadiness he lost his position. 

A place was ofi'ered him in Jamaica ; and, in December, 
1742, previous to the sailing of the ship, he made a three 
days' visit to Chatham, in Kent, to see the family of Mr. 
George Catlett. — relatives of his deceased mother. Mary, 
the eldest daughter, scarcely fourteen, so charmed the 
young rover, that the three days were prolonged to three 
weeks, and the ship sailed without him. A voyage to Ven- 
ice followed ; and, at the expiration of a year, he returned 
to England. After a short stay on shore, he was impressed 
and taken as a sailor on board the war-ship Harioich. In- 
fluence was used, and he was promoted to the quarter-deck 
as a midshipman. In 1745, he deserted the ship at Ply- 
mouth, was brought back, degraded, ironed, and flogged. 

He had become an infidel, and now threw off all restraint. 
At Madeira, he was transferred from the Harioich to a ves- 
sel bound for Sierra Leone in Africa. Entering into the 
service of a slave-dealer, on one of the Plaintain Islands, he 
suffered incredible hardships, and was reduced to the lowest 
straits. Informing his father of his condition, he was re- 
leased (1748) from his misery, and taken on board a vessel 
commissioned to call for him. On the way home, they were 
overtaken by a storm that nearly sank the poor unseawor- 
thy craft. It brought him to prayer, and to repentance. 
He reached home in May, lft48 — no longer an infidel, but a 
Christian by conviction. 

His father, before his return, had gone out to Hudson's 
Bay, as Governor of York Fort, and soon after died. New- 
ton made another voyage, as mate, to the African coast. 



JOHN NEWTON. 471 

After his return, lie was married, February 12, 1750, to 
Miss Catlett, whom he had never ceased to love devotedly 
since their hrst meeting seven years before. Two voyages, 
as master, to Africa and the West Indies, closed, August, 
1754, his life at sea, Newton was a slave-trader, and in 
his two voyages carried probably not less than 500 Africans 
into West Indian slavery. A third voyage had been deter- 
mined on, but, on the eve of sailing, an apoplectic attack 
intervened, and the sea was finally abandoned. 

Having been appointed Tide Surveyor at Livei^pool, he 
entered on the duties of the position, in August, 1755, and 
held it nearly nine j'ears. He now took an active part in 
meetings for prayer, and mission-movements. Occasionally 
he was persuaded to occupy the pulpit as a lay-preacher. At 
length, after consultation with friends, he determined to 
seek orders in the Church of England. On his later voy- 
ages, he had employed his leisure in the study of Euclid 
and the Latin language, and for many years he had befen a 
diligent student of theology. Five years intervened be- 
tween his first application and the successful accomplish- 
ment of his purpose. At length, the Curacy of Olney was 
offered him by the Vicar, Rev. Moses Browne ; and, by the 
influence of the Earl of Dartmouth, the patron of Olney, 
he was admitted to orders. He was ordained deacon, April 
29, 1764, and priest, June 17, 1764, at Buckden, in the 
thirty-ninth year of his age. He began his work at Olney, 
in May, and continued there an acceptable and most useful 
preacher and pastor, nearly sixteen years. Co^\^3er and 
Mrs. Unwin became residents of Olney, and near neighbors 
of Newton, in September, 1767. 

In August, 1764, he published " An Authentic Narrative 
of some remarkable and interesting Particiilars in the Life 
of Newton." He had printed a volume of six Seimons, in 
1760, at Liverpool. In 1767, he published another volume 
of Sermons, twenty in number. His " Review of Ecclesi- 
astical History " was issued in November, 1769. He wrote 
a Series of twenty-six Letters for The Gospel Magazine^ 
with the signature of " Omicron," which, in July, 1774, were 



472 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

publislied in one volume. The " Olney Hymns " appeared 
in 1779, just at the close of his Curacy. His " Cardiphonia ; 
or, The Utterance of the Heart, in the Course of a Real 
Correspondence," was published in 1781 ; his " Apologia : 
Four Letters to a Minister of an Independent Church," in 
1784 ; also, " A Plan of Academical Preparation for the 
Ministry," and eight papers contributed to the Theological 
Miscellany. " A Monument to the Lord's Goodness " was 
issued in 1785, in memory of his beloved niece Eliza Cun- 
ningham, who died that year. In 1786, he published his 
" Messiah : Fifty Expository Discourses, on the Series of 
Scriptural Passages, which form the Subject of the cele- 
brated Oratorio of Handel"; in 1787, his " Thoughts upon 
the African Slave Trade"; in 1791, " Christian Character 
Exemplified," in the case of Mrs. Margaret Althaus ; and, 
in 1793, in two volumes, his " Letters to a Wife." 

His friend, John Thornton, in August, 1779, presented 
him to the Rectory of the united parishes of St. Mary 
Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, London ; and 
he entered upon his work there in December. His beloved 
and idolized wife was taken from him, December 15, 1790, 
dying from the effects of a cancer. His own death occurred, 
December 21, 1807, in his eighty-third year, and in the 
forty-fourth year of his ministry. He was buried in a 
vault under his church, and the following inscription, com- 
posed by himself, and engraved on a marble ta])let, perpet- 
uates his memory : " John Newton, Clerk, once an Infidel 
and Libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich 
Mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, 
restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the Faith he 
had long labored to destroy." 

Newton was a sailor to the last, in his habits, his talk, 
and, to some extent, his apparel. His language in the pul- 
pit was remarkably simple, yet always correct. His sea- 
faring life had furnished him with a rich and varied expe- 
rience, from which he was ever drawing forcible illustrations 
of divine truth. It appears continually in his poetry. Who, 
but a sailor, could have written the following hvmn ? — 



GERARD THOMAS NOEL. 473 

' The billows swell, the winds are high, 
Clouds overcast my wintry sky; 
Out of the depths to thee I call. 
My fears are great, my strength is small, 

' O Lord ! the pilot's part pei-form, 
And guide and guard me through the storm ; 
Defend me from each threatening ill, 
Control the waves ! — say, — ' Peace ! he still ! ' 

' Amidst the roaring of the sea, 
My soul still hangs her hope on thee ; 
Thy constant love, thy faithful care. 
Is all that saves me from despair. 

' Dangers of every shape and name 
Attend the followers of the Lamb, 
Who leave the world's deceitful shore, 
And leave it to return no more. 

' Though tempest-tossed, and half a wreck. 
My Saviour, through the floods, I seek; 
Let neither wiads, nor stormy raia, 
Force back my shattered bark agaia." 



GERARD THOMAS NOEL. 

1782-1851. 

The Rev. Gerard Thomas Noel was the second son 
of Sir Gerard Noel Edwardes, Bart., and Diana, daughter 
and heiress of Charles Middleton, the first Baron Barham. 
His elder brother was the first Earl of Gainsborough ; his 
younger brother was the noted Baptist preacher. Rev. Bap- 
tist Wriothesley Noel, of London. 

He was born, December 2, 1782. He entered, first, the 
University of Edinburgh, and thence he passed to Trinity 
College, Cambridge, where he graduated, A.B., in 1805, and 
A.M., in 1808. He married, early in 1806, Charlotte Sophia, 



4T4 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

a daughter of the Right Hon. Sir Lucius O'Brien, Bart., of 
Ireland. He was ordained to the priesthood, and officiated 
first as the Curate of Radwell, Hertfordshire ; then as the 
Vicar of Rainham, Kent, until 1826, when he accepted the 
Curacy of Richmond, Surrey. 

As the result of an early visit to the Continent, he pub- 
lished " Arvendel, or Sketches in Italy and Switzerland," 
the second edition of which was issued in 1813. Several 
poems and hymns, of a superior character, are ai)pended to 
these " Sketches." This was followed by " A Selection of 
Psalms and Hymns from the New Version of the Church 
of England, and others. Corrected and Revised for Public 
Worship," of which the third edition appeared in 1820. 
Several of the hymns were from his own pen. In 1827, he 
published a volume of "Sermons preached at Richmond"; 
and, the next year (1828), the "Prospects of the Church." 
These were followed by "Fifty Sermons for the Use of 
Families," in two volumes, a new edition of which was is- 
sued in 1830. Several of his occasional sermons, of various 
dates, were also given to the press. 

He was made a Canon of Winchester, in 1834, and pre- 
ferred, in 1840, to the Vicarage of Romsey, where he con- 
tinued until his decease, February 24, 1851, in his sixty- 
ninth year. A volume of his " Sermons, preached in Rom- 
sey," with "A Preface by Samuel [Wilberforce], Lord 
Bishop of Oxford," was published (1853) posthumously. 

His hymn on the Fifth Commandment is subjoined : 

" To honor those who gave us birth, 
To cheer their age, to feel their worth, 
Is God's command to human kind, 
And owned by every grateftd mind. 

" Think of her toil, her anxious care, 
Who formed thy hsping lips to prayer, 
To win for God the yielduig soul, 
And all its ardent thoughts control. 

" Nor keep, from memory's glad review, 
The fears which all the father knew. 



SAMSON OCCOM. 417^ 

The joy that marked his thankful gaze, 
As virtue crowned maturer days. 

God of our life ! each parent gnard, 
And death's sad hour, Oh ! long retard ; 
Be theu's each joy that gilds the past, 
And heaven our mutual home at last." 



SAMSON OCCOM. 
1723-1792. 

A great sensation was created in 1766, among the relig- 
ious circles of Scotland and England, by the appearance, in 
their pidpits, of a converted Indian from America. He was 
called Samson Occom, and was associated with a Congrega- 
tional pastor, the Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, of Norwich, 
Conn., in an agency for an Indian Charity School. He was 
befriended by the evangelical clergy, and not a few of the 
nobility. The Countess of Huntingdon received him into 
her house, and the Earl of Dartmouth (the friend and pa- 
tron of John Newton), as well as the King himself, gave 
freely to the object. From February 16, 1766, to July 
22, 1767, he preached more than three hundred times, and 
usually to crow^ded houses. The collections amounted to 
nearly £9,500. The whole amount was deposited with a 
Committee, of which Lord Dartmouth was Chairman, and 
applied to the building of a college in the town of Han- 
over, N. H., to which the name of the noble Earl was 
given in compliment. Such was the origin of Dartmouth 
College, New Hampshire. 

Samson Occom Avas born, at Mohegan, on the river Thames, 
between Norwich and New London, Conn., in 1723. His 
early life differed not materially from that of the other 
Mohegans. In his seventeenth year, " the Great Revival " 
of 1740 spread over the country ; it reached his home, and, 



476 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

in 1741, he was converted to Christianity. He now sought 
to Christianize his people ; and, to this end, learned shortly 
to read the Bible, and became anxious for a good educa- 
tion. At the age of twenty (1743), he was received into a 
school taught by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, Lebanon, 
Conn., a short distance only from the locality of his tribe, 
where he remained for four years. 

He now went forth as a teacher of his people, first (1748) 
at New London, Conn., and then among the Indians at 
Montauk, on the east end of Long Island, N. Y. He mar- 
ried an Indian woman, and supported his family by tilling 
the ground and other laborious occupations — giving most 
of his time, however, to teaching, both children and adults. 
After several years, he was licensed to preach, by the Wind- 
ham Association, Conn., and served as a missionary among 
all the tribes in the eastern part of Long Island. Such 
was his proficiency, that the Presbytery of Suffolk ordained 
him to the work of the ministry, August 30, 1759. 

For a short time (1761), he served as a missionary among 
the Oneida Indians, in the interior of the State of New 
York. His mission to Great Britain occupied the greater 
part of the years 1766 and 1767. On his return, he labored 
among his own tribe at Mohegan, until 1786, when he re- 
moved, in company with a considerable number of New 
England and Long Island Indians, to the Brotherton Tract, 
Oneida Co., N. Y. There, and at New Stockbridge and 
Tuscarora, he spent the remainder of his days. He was 
one of the original members of the Presbytery of Albany, 
constituted in 1790. Having been universally respected 
among his people, he died, suddenly, July 14, 1792, greatly 
lamented and honored by them all. 

A sermon, preached by him at the execution of Moses 
Paul, an Indian, at New Haven, Conn., Sei^tember 2, 1772, 
was published at the time, and is quite creditable. He 
united with others in the compilation of a hymn-book, 
the sixth edition of which, " greatly improved," was pub- 
lished at Albany, with the title, — " Divine Hymns, or Spir- 
itual Songs, for the Use of Religious Assemblies and Pri- 



JOHN OGILVIE. 477 

vate Christians : being a Collection by Joshua Smith, Sam- 
son Ockum, and others." The names of the authors of the 
hymns are not given. Two of them are known to have 
been written by Occom. The 156th hymn is the original 
from which Dr. Nettleton took the hymn 

"Awaked by Sinai's awful sound," etc. 

Occom's hymn begins with 

" Waked by the Gospel's joyful sound,"' 

and contains eight stanzas, quite different from the form in 
which it appeared in the " Village Hymns " (1824), and as 
now generally sung. The other hymn ascribed to Occom, 
is on " Christ's Sufferings," the first stanza of which is sub- 
joined : 

" Throughout our Sa\dour's life we trace 
Nothing but shame and deep disgrace, 

No period else was seen, 
Till he a spotless victim fell, 
Tasting in soul a painful hell, 

Caused by the creature's sin." 



JOHN OGILVIE. 

1733-1814. 

JoHis- OaiLviE, D.D., was a Scotchman, and the son of a 
Presbyterian pastor. His father was one of the ministers 
of Aberdeen, where the son was born in 1733, His Para- 
phrase of the 148th Psalm, remarkable for poetic beauties, 
was written when he was only sixteen years of age. He 
was educated at the Marischal College in his native town, 
and in 1759 was presented to the parish of Midmae, Aber- 
deenshire, a humble, out-of-the-way charge, quite in the 
northeastern section of Scotland. Here, for more than half 



478 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

a century, lie resided, passing his long life in the faithful 
discharge of his parochial duties, and in literary pursuits. 

His publications were quite numerous : " The Day of 
Judgment, a Poem " (1758) ; a corrected edition of it, with 
several Odes attached (1759) ; " Poems on several Subjects, 
with an Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients " (1762) ; 
" Providence, an Allegorical Poem " (1763) ; " Solitude, or 
the Elysium of the Poets, a Vision " (1765) ; " Paradise, a 
Poem," and " Poems on several Subjects " (1769) ; " Philo- 
sophical and Critical Observations on the Nature, Character, 
and various Species of Composition " (1774) ; " Rona, a 
Poem " (1777) ; " An Inquiry into the Causes of the Infi- 
delity and Scepticism of the Times " (1783) ; " The Theol- 
ogy of Plato, compared with the Principles of the Oriental 
and Grecian Philosophy " (1793) ; " Britannia, an Epic Poem, 
in twenty books, with a Critical Dissertation on Epic Ma- 
chinery " (1801) ; and " An Examination of the Evidence 
from Prophecy, in behalf of the Christian Religion " (1802). 

The mere enumeration of his " Works " shows conclu- 
sively the extent of his erudition, and the greatness of his 
devotion to literature. These were recognized by the Uni- 
versity of Aberdeen, from whom he received the honorary 
degree of D.D. He was, also, elected a Fellow of the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh. Generally, he was held in high 
esteem, both as a divine, and a man of letters. His poems 
contain many passages of great beauty. He continued in 
the faithfuh discharge of his duties, as a Christian minister, 
until his decease in 1814, at the advanced age of fourscore 
years. 

His poetic skill is fairly exhibited in the following ex- 
tract from his "Providence," in which Wisdom thus 
speaks : 

" 'Tis mme to raise 
The desolate of heart; to bend the brow 
Of stubborn pride ; to bid reluctant ire 
Subside ; to tame rude nature to the rein 
Of virtue. What though, screened from mortal view, 
I walk the deepening gloom ? What though my ways, 
Remote from thought's bewildered search, are wrapt 



THOMAS OLIVERS. 479 

In triple darkness ? Yet I work the springs 

Of life, and to the general good direct 

Th' obsequious means to move. — O ye! who, tossed 

On life's tumultuous ocean, eye the shore, 

Yet far removed ; and wait the happy hour. 

When slumber on her downy couch shall lull 

Your cares to sweet repose ; yet bear awhile, 

And I will guide you to the balmy climes 

Of rest ; will lay you by the silver stream 

Ci'owned with elysian bowers, where peace extends 

Her blooming olive, and the tempest j)ours 

Its killing blasts no more. — Thus Wisdom speaks 

To man ; thus calls him through th' external form 

Of Nature, through Religion's fuller noon. 

Through life's bewildering mazes, to observe 

A Providence in all." 



THOMAS OLIVEKS. 
1725-1799. 

Early in August, 1752, George W-hiteiield was at Bristol, 
England. Crowds, as usual, pressed to hear the mighty 
preacher. On one of these occasions, he preached from the 
words, — " Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ? " 
One of his hearers, that day, was a wandering shoemaker, 
who had come three hours before the time of service, to 
secure a good position. "When the sermon began," he 
says of himself, " I was certainly a dreadful enemy of God, 
and to all that is good ; and one of the most profligate and 
abandoned young men living ; but, by the time it was ended, 
I was become a new creature," — " in consequence of which, 
I broke off all my evil practices, and forsook all my wicked 
and foolish companions without delay ; and gave myself 
up to God and his service with my whole heart." 

This was Thomas Olivers — born at Tregonan, Mont- 
gomeryshire, Wales, in 1725, and, in 1729, deprived of both 



480 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

of his parents. A distant relative, Mr. Tredor, a farmer at 
Forden, in the same county, had brought him up. At 
eighteen, he was bound to a shoemaker ; but, after a time, 
such was his profligacy, he was compelled to quit the place. 
He had lived awhile at Shrewsbury, then at Wrexham ; had 
suffered from small-pox, gone into debt, and evaded pay- 
ment. He was now twenty-six years old, and had come 
to Bristol to ]3ractice his craft. He was, truly, " a brand 
plucked out of the fire." His conversion was thorough. 
He restored what he had taken ; paid off all his debts ; 
bought a horse, and rode from place to place, and every- 
where told what the Lord had done for his soul. He joined 
one of John Wesley's societies, at Bradford, Wiltshire ; 
and in October, 1753, Wesley sent him, as an itinerant 
preacher, into Cornwall. In the course of the next twenty- 
five years, on that one horse, he rode in the service of the 
Gospel about 100,000 miles. 

He gave himself to reading ; and, being of a lively dis- 
position, and sanguine temperament, was esteemed one of 
the best preachers in the Connection. Wesley had a high 
regard for him, and, in 1775, stationed him at London, as 
"Corrector of the Press." He wrote several small pam 
phlets in defence of Wesley, and in reply to Hill and Top- 
lady. Both of these gentlemen spoke of him very dispar- 
agingly. Sir Eichard Hill called him : " Thomas Olivers, 
the Cobbler." Toplady, in allusion to him, says : " Let his 
cobblers keep to their stalls"; and, also, in that sarcastic 
language which he had so fully at command, he gives a 
full-length portrait of Olivers, — making Wesley say : 

" I've Thomas Olivers, the cobbler, 
No stall in England holds a nobler, 
A wight of talents universal, 
Whereof I'll give a brief rehearsal : — 
He wields, beyond most other men, 
His awl, his razor, and his pen ; 
My beard he shaves, repairs my shoe, 
And writes my panegyric too ; 
He, with one brandish of his quill. 
Can knock down Toplady and Hill ; 



THOMAS OLIVERS. 481 

With equal ease, whene'er there's need, 
Can darn my stockings and my creed ; 
Can drive a nail, or ply the needle, 
Hem handkerchief, and scx'ape the fiddle : 
Chop logic as an ass chews thistle, 
More skillfully than you can whistle ; 
And then, when he philosophises. 
No son of Crispin half so wise is. 
Of all my ragged regiment, 
This cobbler gives me most content ; 
My forgeries' and faith's defender. 
My barber, champion and shoe-mender." 

On the other hand, the friends of Wesley speak of his 

pamphlets as " creditable to his talents," and of his logic 

as more than a match for his opponents. By far the most 

" creditable " thing that he ever wrote, was his noble hymn, 

" The God of Abraham praise," etc., 

in twelve stanzas. The occasion of its composition was 
this : Being in attendance on a Conference held at London, 
in 1770, and a guest of John Bakewell, he visited the Jews' 
Synagogue, and heard the Rabbi, Signor Leoni, sing an air 
that greatly pleased him. He returned to Mr. Bakewell's, 
and, at his house in Westminster, immediately composed 
this hymn for the tune that had so charmed him. It was 
soon after published with the caption, — " A Hymn to the 
God of Abraham, in three Parts. Adapted to a celebrated 
Air, sung by the Priest, Signor Leoni, etc., at the Jews' 
Synagogue, London." Of this hymn, Montgomery uses 
the following language, in his " Introductory Essay " to his 
"Christian Psalmist": 

" There is not in our language a lyric of more majestic 
style, more elevated thought, or more glorious imagery ; 
its structure, indeed, is unattractive ; and, on account of 
the short lines, occasionally uncouth ; but, like a stately 
pile of architecture, severe and simj)le in design, it strikes 
less on the first view, than after deliberate examination, 
when its proportions become more graceful, its dimensions 
expand, and the mind itself grows greater in contemplat- 
ing it." 

31 



482 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Olivers had, at an earlier date (1757 or '8), written a judg- 
ment hyinn in twenty stanzas, to which, some years later, he 
added sixteen stanzas ; and of which the first and second, 
fourth and fifth are here given, as amended by himself : 

' ' Come, immortal King of glory ! 
Now with all thy saints appear ; 
While astonished worlds adore thee, 
And the dead thy clarions hear ; 

Shine refulgent, 
And thy deity maintain. 

" Hail! the world's adored Creator! 
In thy radiant vesture seen : 
Hail I the Lord of life and nature ! 
Hail ! th' almighty Nazarene ! 

They who pierced him, 
Every eye shall see him come. 

" Lo! he comes with clouds descending! 
Hark ! the trump of God is blown ; 
And, th' archangel's voice attending, 
Make the high procession known : 

Sons of Adam ! 
Rise and stand before your God. 

" Crowns and sceptres fall before him, 
Kings and conquerors own his sway ; 
Haughtiest monarchs now adore him, 
While they see his lightnings play : 

How triumphant 
Ls the world's Redeemer now I " 

For this hymn, Olivers composed the tune, "Helmsley," 
or, as it is sometimes called, " Olivers," — formerly much 
in use. 

He continued to superintend the press for Wesley in 
London, and particularly to edit the Arminian Magazine, 
until August, 1789, when Wesley makes this entry in his 
journal : — '' Saturday, 8th. — I settled all my temporal busi- 
ness, and, in particular, chose a new person to prepare the 
Arminian Magazine ; being obliged, however unwillingly, 
to drop Mr. Olivers, for only these two reasons : 1. Tlie 



HENRY USTICK ONDERDONK. 483 

errata are insufferable ; I have borne them for these twelve 
years, but can bear them no longer. 2. Several pieces are 
inserted without my knowledge, both in prose and verse. " 
When considerably advanced in life, Olivers had mar- 
ried Miss Green, a young Scotch woman, of piety and good 
family. Deprived of his position, and subjected to straits, 
he became careless in his habits, and slovenly in his person. 
A small sum was allowed him by the Conference, and he 
served as a Local preacher. He died, suddenly, in March, 
1799, and his remains were deposited in Wesley's vault, 
New Chapel Burying Ground, City Road, London. 



HENRY USTICK ONDERDONK. 
1789-1858. 

Bishop OT^^DERDOifK contributed to the Selection of 
Hymns adopted (1826) by the General Convention of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, U. S. A., Nos. 14, 105, 106, 
109, 131, 195, 203, 208, and 211 ; also, Psalms 16, 23, and 59. 
He was one of the Committee that prepared the Selection. 

He was born in 1789 in the city of New York, where 
his parents. Dr. John (son of Hendrick) Onderdonk and 
Deborah Ustick, then resided. He was trained, in accord- 
ance with his father's pursuit, for the medical profession. 
He was educated in his native city, graduating at Colum- 
bia College, in 1805. Several years were spent abroad, 
mostly in connection with the University of Edinburgh, 
from which he received (1810) the degree of M.D. Return- 
ing home, he entered upon the practice of medicine at Ne\\^ 
York, and was associated with Dr. Valentine Mott in con- 
ducting (1815) the NeiD YorJc Medical Journal. The same 
year he abandoned his early profession, for the ministry. 
After a brief course of theology, he was ordained (1815) a 
deacon of the Episcopal Church. His first charge was a 



484 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

new entei-prise at Canandaigua, where lie began his labors, 
in January, 1816, as a missionary ; and two years later, he 
was made the Rector of the chnrch. In 1820, he removed 
to Brooklyn, Kew York, to take charge of St. Ann's Chnrch, 
where he continued for seven years. 

Bishop White, of Philadelphia, having become quite in- 
firm. Dr. Onderdonk was chosen Assistant Bishop of the 
Diocese of Pennsylvania, and consecrated, October 25, 1827. 
He received the honorary degree of D.D., the same year, 
from Columbia College. He took an active part in the 
theological controversies of the times. To the Protestant 
Episcopalian, he contributed (November and December, 
1830) an essay on "Episcopacy Tested by Scripture," re- 
published as a pamphlet shortly after ; and, finally, ex- 
panded into a considerable volume, and published (1835), 
as " Episcopacy Examined and Re-examined." The same 
year he published an " Essay on Regeneration," and " Fam- 
ily Devotions from the Liturgy." At various times, he had 
made contributions to several medical and religious jour- 
nals, and was regarded as an able and learned controver- 
sialist. 

Bishop Onderdonk was susi)ended from the functions of 
the bishopric and the ministry, October 21, 1844, and passed 
several years in retirement. In 1851, he published two vol- 
umes of " Sermons and Episcopal Charges," of a very high 
character. He was restored to the ministry, in October, 
1856, and died, December 6, 1858. The following is one of 
his hymns : 

" Bmner! rouse thee from thy sleep, 
Wake, and o'er thy folly weep ; 
Raise thy spirit dark and dead, 
Jesus waits his light to shed. 

'* Wake from sleep, arise from death, 
See the bright and living path : 
Watchful tread that path ; be wise, 
Leave thy folly, seek the skies. 

" Leave thy folly, cease from crime, 
From this hour redeem thy time ; 



EDWARD OSLER 486 

Life secure without delay, 
Evil is the mortal day. 

■ Be not blind and foolish still ; 
Called of Jesus, learn his will: 
Jesus calls from death and night, 
Jesus waits to shed his light." 



EDWARD OSLER. 

1798-1863. 

In a Collection of "Psalms and Hymns adapted to the 
Services of the Church of England," compiled by the Rev. 
William John Hall, London, 1836, are found fifty hymns 
contributed by Mr. Osier. He was born in January, 1798, 
at Falmouth, England. He was educated '-under the roof 
of a Dissenting minister"; and was trained for the medical 
profession, first with Dr. Carvosso, of Falmouth, and then 
at Guy's Hospital, London. He was appointed (1819) resi- 
dent house surgeon of Swansea Infirmary, and practiced 
medicine, also, in the town for the next six years. He pub- 
lished a work, written for the Linnsean Society (of which 
he was a Fellow), entitled, " Burrowing and Boring Marine 
Animals." . 

At the age of tw6nty-seven, he left Swansea for London, 
and devoted himself to literary and religious pursuits. A 
visit to the West Indies was commemorated on his return 
(1830) by, " The Voyage : a Poem written at Sea, and in the 
West Indies, and Illustrated by Papers on Natural His- 
tory." While at London and at Bath, he published "The 
Church and the Bible"; "The Church and Dissent consid- 
ered in their Practical Influence" (1836); "The Church 
and King" (1837) ; and "The Life of Admiral Viscount Ex- 
mouth" (1837),— a work of considerable literary merit. 
During this period he was serving "The Society for Pro- 



486 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

moting Christian Knowledge." He returned, in 1841, to 
his native county, and became the editor of Tlie Royal 
Cornwall Gazette, at Truro, which he conducted with great 
ability and usefulness to the end of his days. He died at 
Ti'uro, March 7, 1863, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. 
He was married three times. 

He wrote several hymns to accompany his two works, on 
"Dissent," and "The King." The following is the 95th of 
"The Mitre Hymn-Book" (Hall's) : 

" Come, magnify the Saviour's love; 

Come, praise oxir great Redeemer's name, 
Who left the Father's throne above, 

And stooped for us to death and shame : 
At God's right hand exalted now, 

With glory, majesty, and power, 
Let every knee before him bow, 

And every tongue his name adore. 

" Thy lowly spirit. Lord! impart; 

With holy fear our bosoms fill ; 
Oh ! give the meek obedient heart, 

To suffer and to do thy Avill ; 
Thy cross, blest Saviour! may we bear; 

Mark the example thou hast given ; 
Follow in all thy footsteps here : 

Rise to thy glorious rest in heaven." 



RAY PALMER. 

1808 . 

When Dr. Palmer was asked for the origin of his first 
and best hymn, — 

" My faith looks up to thee," etc., 

he replied : [It was] " wi^itten because it was born in my 
heart, and demanded expression. I gave form to what I 



RAY PALMER. 487 

felt, by writing, with little effort, the stanzas. I wrote 
them with very tender emotion, and ended the last lines 
with tears." He was, at the time, in New York, and 
had been in attendance on Mr. Nettleton's preaching 
at the Brick Church. The manuscript was put away 
in his pocket-book. More than a year later, being at 
Boston, Mass., he was asked by Lowell Mason for a con- 
tribution to his " Spiritual Songs," then in the course 
of publication. He gave the manuscript to Mr. Mason, 
who read it carefully, and said : " I should not be surprised, 
if you should, in future years, be better known by this 
hymn than by anything else." It has proved, unquestion- 
ably, his most popular production. It is found in all the 
hymn-books, and has been translated into many languages. 
Dr. Palmer is the son of the Hon. Thomas Palmer, a na- 
tive of Little Compton, II. L, where he himself was born, 
November 12, 1808. One of his sweetest sonnets, in later 
years, intimates the loving care with which he was trained : 

" My angel-mother! Long, long years have gone 

Since thou, yet young and fan-, passed from my sight. 

E'er since, I see thy gentle face each day, 
And in the silent night, and still there play. 
In those soft eyes, the self-same smiles, that made 
Thy presence a deep joy, in days of yore." 

He was educated at home until his thirteenth year, when 
he went to Boston, and shortly after became a clerk in a 
dry-goods store. He was led to attend on the ministry of 
the Rev. Sereno Edwards Dwight, D.D., at that time the 
pastor of the Park Street Congregational Church, of which 
church soon after he became a member. His attention was 
now directed to the ministry of the Gospel, and he spent 
three years at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., in prep- 
aration for college. He then entered Yale College, New 
Haven, Conn., where he graduated in 1830. His theologi- 
cal studies were pursued, under pastoral supervision, for 
one year at New York, and three years at New Haven. 



488 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

At the latter place, lie was associated with Ethan A. An- 
drews, LL.D., in conducting a Young Ladies' Institute. 

Having been duly licensed to preach the Gospel, he re- 
ceived a call to the pastorate of the Central Congregational 
Church of Bath, Me., where he was ordained, July 23, 1835. 
In 1847, he went abroad for his health, and jxiblished, in the 
columns of the Christian Mirror^ Portland, Me., an ac- 
count of what he saw and heard in Europe. He accepted, 
in 1850, a call to the pastoral charge of the First Congrega- 
tional Church of Albany, IS". Y. In 1865, he was appointed 
Corresponding Secretary of the American Congregational 
Union, and, on his acceptance, removed to the city of IS'ew 
York. He resigned the Secretaryship in 1878, and has 
since been engaged in pastoral work in Newark, N. J. 

Dr. Palmer is well known as a gifted preacher and a pol- 
ished writer, as well as a graceful poet. He has made 
frequent and valuable contributions to the periodical 
press. He is the author of several volumes, both of 
prose and poetry : " Memoirs and Select Remains of 
Charles Pond" (1829); "The Spirit's Life, a Poem" 
(1837) ; " How to Live, or Memoirs of Mrs. C. L. Wat- 
son"; "Doctrinal Text Book"; and "Spiritual Improve- 
ment, or Aids to Growth in Grace " (1839) ; — the last 
republished (1851) as "Closet Hours." "What is Trath? 
or Hints on the Formation of Religious Opinions " (1860) 
has had an extensive circulation, and has been repub- 
lished in England. "Remember me, or The Holy Com- 
munion," and " Hymns and Sacred Pieces, with Miscella- 
neous Poems," appeared in 1865, followed, in 1868, by 
"Hymns of my Holy Hours, and other Pieces"; and, in 
1873, by "Home, or the Unlost Paradise." A complete 
edition of his " Poetical Works " was issued in 1875. 

His liynin on " The Tranquil Hour " is quite character- 
istic : 

" Thou, Saviour! from thy throne on high, 
Enrobed in light and girt with power, 
Dost note the thought, the prayer, the sigh 
Of hearts that love the tranquil hour. 



ROSWELL PAEK. 489 

Oft thou thyself didst steal away, 

At eventide, from labor done. 
In some still peaceful shade to pray, 

Till morning watches were begun. 

Thou hast not, dearest Lord ! forgot 

Thy wrestlings on Judsea's hills ; 
And still thou lov'st the quiet spot 

Where praise the lowly spirit fills. 

Now to our souls, withdi-awn awhile 

From earth's rude noise, thy face reveal ; 
And, as we worship, kindly smile. 

And for thine own our spirits seal. 

To thee we bring each grief and care, 

To thee we fly while tempests lower ; 
Thou wilt the weary burdens bear 

Of hearts that love the tranquil hour." 



ROSWELL PARK. 

1807-1869. 

The Rev. Dr. Paek was born, October 1, 1807, at 
Lebanon, Conn. He received a military education at West 
Point, and in 1831, graduated at Union College, N. Y. 
He was appointed a Lieutenant of the United States 
Military Engineer Corps, and served from 1831 to 1836. 
Retiring from the Army, he received the appointment 
of Professor of Natural Philosophy and Geometry in the 
University of Pennsylvania. 

He published (1836) his " Selections of Juvenile and Mis- 
cellaneous Poems"; also (1840) "A Sketch of the History 
and Topography of West Point and of the United States 
Military Academy"; and (1841) "Pantology, or a Syste- 
matic Survey of Human Knowledge." 

The attention of Prof. Park was now directed towards 



490 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tlie Christian ministry ; and, in 1843, lie was ordained a 
minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and became 
Rector of Christ Church, Pomfret, Conn. Three years 
later (1846), he also took charge of Christ Church Hall, a 
high school, connected with his parish. Here he remained 
until 1852, when he visited Europe ; and, on his return, be- 
came the President of Racine College, Wisconsin, of Avhich, 
in 1859, he was made Chancellor. He issued (1853) "A 
Hand-Book for American Travellers in Europe." The hon- 
orary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Norwich 
University, Vermont. He removed to Chicago, 111., in 1863, 
and founded Immanuel Hall, a literary and scientiiic school, 
of which he continued to be the proprietor and rector until 
his decease, July 16, 1869, in his sixty-second year. 

Dr. Park was a vigorous writer and a good scholar. He 
made frequent contributions to periodical literature, and 
published, in addition, occasional addresses, lectures, and 
essays. His Book of Poems was republished (1856), with 
the title, — " Jerusalem, and other Poems." 



HARRIET PARR. 

1828 . 

The touching lyric, beginning 

" Hear my prayer, O heavenly Father 1 " 

is from a contribution, by Miss Parr, to the Christmas 
Number of Household Words (1856), edited by Dickens. 
It appeared as an incident in a Tale, called " The Wreck of 
the Golden Mary." Escaping from the wreck, two boys, 
in one of the boats, beguile the time by telling stories. 
Among the old things then recollected, is " a child's hymn " 
that one of the boys "used to say at his mother's knee"; 
and he, at the request of the other boy, repeats it. 



WILLIAM BOURNE OLIVER PEABODY. 491 

Miss Pare is a native of the city of York, England, and 
has thus far shielded herself and her personal history under 
the nom deplume of " Holme Lee." She was born in 1828, 
and began to write her numerous works of fiction in 1854. 
In that year she published '' Maude Talbot." " Thorney 
Hall," and " Gilbert Massenger," appeared in 1855; " Kathie 
Brande," in 1856; "Sylvan Holt's Daughter," in 1858; 
"Hawksview," and "Against Wind and Tide," in 1859; 
" Wortlebank Diary," and " Legends from Fairy Land," 
in 1860 ; " Warp and Woof," and " Wonderful Adventures 
of Tuflongbo and his Elfin Company," in 1861 ; "Anne 
Warleigh's Fortunes," and the " True Pathetic History of 
Poor Match," in 1863; "In the Silver Age: Essays— that 
is. Dispersed Meditations," in 1864 ; " Mr. Wynyard's 
Ward," in 1867 ; and, " Contrast, or the School Fellows," 
and " Basil Godfrey's Caprice," in 1868. It is not known 
that she has written any other hymns. 



WILLIAM BOURNE OLIVER PEABODY. 

1799-1847. 

William Bouriste Oliver Peabody and Oliver William 
Bourne Peabody were the twin children of Oliver Peabody, 
of Exeter, N. H., where they were born, July 9, 1799. They 
were sent, in 1809, to Phillips Academy, in their native 
town, then under the care of Benjamin Abbott, LL.D. At 
the early age of fourteen, they entered the Sophomore Class 
of Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., and graduated with 
distinction in 1816. William, on this occasion, delivered 
an English poem, of marked excellence. 

At their graduation, the brothers parted ; Oliver, to 
study law (though later in life he became a minister), and 
William, to study theology. The latter, having served as 
Tutor in the Academy at Exeter, spent two years at Cam- 



492 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

bridge as a pupil of tlie Rev, Dr. Ware. In 1819, he began 
to preach, and, October 12, 1820, in his twenty-second year, 
he was ordained the pastor of the newly formed Unitarian 
Church, at Springfield, Mass. He married, September 8, 
1824, Miss Elizabeth Amelia White, the daughter of Moses 
White, of Lancaster, N. H. 

His wife was removed by death, October 4, 1843, and her 
only daughter, eighteen years of age, in less than four 
months afterwards. His own death followed. May 28, 1847. 
He was greatly beloved by his people, and universally es- 
teemed as a scholar, and Christian gentleman. He distin- 
guished himself greatly as an Ornithologist. 

In 1823, he published a " Poetical Catechism for the Use 
of the Young." The most of his Poems were written in 
his early ministry, and exhibit peculiar grace and beauty. 
In addition to the Hymn on " The Autumn Evening" (1823) 
by which he is so well known, his "Hymn of Nature," 
"Monadnock," "The Winter Night," and "Death," have 
been greatly and justly admired. His later poetic effusions 
were chiefly contributed to Tlie Christian Examiner and 
other periodicals, for which he wrote considerably. His 
" Report on the Birds of the Commonwealth " (1839) elic- 
ited deserved commendation. To Sparks' "Library of 
American Biography," he contributed the Lives of Alex- 
ander Wilson, Cotton Mather, David Brainerd, James Ogle- 
thorpe, and John Sullivan ; and to the Worth American 
Meview, from 1828 to 1847, not less than forty-eight Arti- 
cles. He received the honorary degree of D.D., in 1842, 
from Harvard College. 

His " Sermons, with a Memoir," partly prepared by his 
twin brother (who survived him little more than a year), 
appeared in 1848 ; and his " Literary Remains," edited by 
his son Everett (who fell at the battle of Sliiloh, April 6, 
1862), in 1850. Prof. Andrew P. Peabody, D.D., speaks of 
the two brothers " as men who consecrated the noblest en- 
dowments and ripest attainments of intellect to the cause 
of truth, progress, humanity, and religion." 

Dr. William B. O. Peabody took a great interest in 



JOHN PEACOCK. 493 

Hymnology ; and, in 1835, compiled and published a Se- 
lection of Hymns tor the use of his own congregation, 
which is commonly known as " The Springfield Collection," 
in which several of his own hymns were inserted anon- 
ymously. The following Hymn on " Sunrise " was written 
in 1823 : 

" See tlie streaks of daylight swim 

On tlie heaving ocean-brim ! 

Now the waves begin to flow 

With a warmer, ruddier glow ; 

Now the gathering lustre shines 

On the loftiest mountain pines, 

And the far-off village spires 

Redden in the kindling fires. 

" There! — he bursts upon the sight, 
Wrapped in flames, intensely bright ! 
Milder now the cool wind blows ; 
All is waking from repose ; 
Now the laborer's steps once more 
Issue from the opening door ; 
And the busy echo sounds 
From the woods and rising grounds. 

" God hath made the sun to shine, — 
Image of his love divine ; 
Thus his rays of mercy fall 
Liberally alike on all ; 
Thus he lights our happy way 
To the labor of the day, 
And, when all our cares are past, 
Leads us up to heaven at last." 



JOHN PEACOCK. 

John Peacock was the author of " Songs of Praise, com- 
posed from the Holy Scriptures." Five of the " Songs " are 
reproduced in Dobell's Selection. Nothing is known of the 



494 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

autlior. He was probably a Dissenting minister in England, 
and the same that published (1768) " A Funeral Discourse 
on W. Johnson." Some of his hymns are not without po- 
etic merit, as the following stanzas show : 

" Blest angels! aid us with your song, 
To whom sublimer notes belong; 
Your golden harps and voices join, 
To sing Immanuel's love divine. 

" Lo! he, who on the cross was slain, 
Enthroned in glory, lives again ! 
At once he bursts death's fatal bands, 
In vain the power of hell withstands. 

" Saints! shout with joy your risen Lord, 
And spread his boundless love abroad : 
Let every heart the Saviour bless, 
And every tongue hiis name confess." 



EDWARD PERRONET. 

1792. 

Edward PERROisrET was the author of the hymn, 

" All hail the power of Jesus' name ! " etc. 

Both in its original state, and in its abridged form as now 
generally sung, it has long been a great favorite. It was 
written as early as 1779, the tune of " Miles' Lane" having 
been set to the first stanza of this hymn and published in 
the Gospel Magazine for that year. This tune was com- 
posed for the hymn, by Mr. Shrubsole, an intimate friend 
of Perronet, and the organist of Spa Fields Chapel, Lon- 
don, from 1784 until his death in 1806. The hjrmn itself 
appeared in eight stanzas, anonymously, in the Magazine 
for 1780. Dr. Rippon introduced it into his Selection 



EDWARD PERRONET. 495 

(1787), omitting the second, third, and sixth stanzas, mod- 
ifying the others, and adding two stanzas of his own. His 
version of it, with slight alterations, and with the omission 
of one of his two stanzas, has since been generally adopted. 

In England, the tune " Miles' Lane " has usually accom- 
panied the hymn. But in America, for a long time, it has 
been sung almost exclusively to the tune "Coronation," 
composed for it (1793) by Oliver Holden, of Charlestown, 
Mass. , a carpenter by trade, and a musician by choice. 

Two years before its ap]Dearance in Dr. Rippon's Selec- 
tion, the hymn, in its original form, appeared in a volume 
of 216 pages, with the title, — " Occasional Verses, Moral and 
Sacred. Published for the Instruction and Amusement of 
the Candidly Serious and Religious. London. Printed 
for the Editor. 1785." This volume is known to have 
been the production of Edward Perronet, of Canterbury, 
England. 

Among the most steadfast and ardent friends of John 
and Charles Wesley, is to be numbered the Rev. Vincent 
Perronet, the Vicar of Shoreham, Kent. He had a large 
family — at least six sons and four daughters. Two of his 
sons, Charles and Edward, born, probably, about the time 
of his removal to Shoreham (1726), became somewhat noted 
in the Annals of Methodism. They were " men of educa- 
tion, talent, and piety." Partaking of the zeal of their fa- 
ther, they became, about 1746, preachers of the Gospel in 
connection with the Wesleys — often travelling with them 
in their evangelical journeys. 

In 1755, arose the question of separation from the Church 
of England, and the organization of another Church. The 
brothers Wesley strenuously opposed it. The brothers Per- 
ronet favored it, and Charles went so far as to administer 
the Lord's Supper to the societies. Edward Perronet, a 
man of much wit as well as poetry, wrote, and published in 
1756, a scathing satire on the Church of England, entitled, 
— " Tlie Mitre, a Satyricall Poem," in three Cantos, of 279 
pages. The Wesleys were exceedingly irritated by this 
production, and succeeded in suppressing and destroying 



496 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

all but about thirty copies. Extracts from it are given 
by Tyerman, in his " Life and Times of Rev. John Wes- 
ley," II. 242-243. The Wesleys broke with him at once. 
Charles Wesley wrote a furious letter about " The Mitre," 
and " Ted " the author, in which he accused him of being 
the head and front of all the disaffection among the 
preachers. 

Previous to this, Perronet had married, and had made 
Canterbury his home. After his breach with the Wesleys, 
he preached awhile in Lady Huntingdon's Connection, but 
eventually became a Dissenter. He procured the old pal- 
ace of the archbishop, and fitted it up for worship. His 
venerable father died. May 8, 1785, in his ninety-second 
year ; and he himself, January 2, 1792, at his home in Can- 
terbury. 



MARY [BOWLY] PETERS. 
1856. 

Mrs. Peters was the author of " Hymns intended to 
help the Communion of Saints," a small volume, contain- 
ing fifty-eight numbers, published at London, in 1847. 
She was the daughter of Richard Bowly, of Cirencester, 
England, where she was born. She became the wife of the 
Rev. John McWilliam Peters, who, in 1822, was instituted 
the Rector of Quenington, in Gloucestershire ; obtaining 
also (1825) the Vicarage of Langford, Berkshire, with the 
Chapelry of Little Farringdon, Oxfordshire. She was left 
a widow in 1834. In addition to her " Hymns," she pub- 
lished, in seven volumes, " The World's History from the 
Creation to the Accession of Queen Victoria." Her later 
years were passed at Clifton, Gloucestershire, where she 
died, July 29, 1856. 

Her poetry is both pleasing and impressive. Her hymn 
on the theme, " All is Well," exhibits these qualities : 



ALEXANDER PIRIE. 497 

" Througli the love of God, our Saviour, 

All will be well ; 
Free and changeless is his favor, 

All, all is well : 
Precious is the blood that healed us; 
Perfect is the grace that sealed us ; 
Strong the hand sti'etched forth to shield us; 

All must be well. 

** Though we pass through tribulation, 

All will be well ; 
Ours is such a full salvation, 

All, all is well : 
Happy still, to God confiding. 
Fruitful, if in Christ abiding, 
Holy, through the Spirit's guiding, — 

All must be well. 

" We expect a bright to-morrow. 

All will be well ; 
Faith can sing, through days of sorrow, 

All, all is well: 
On our Father's love relying, 
Jesus every need supplying. 
Or in living, or in dying, 

All must be well." 



ALEXANDER PIRIE. 

1804. 

Alexa]N"der Pirie was a Scotchman. He was educated 
for the ministry in connection with the Antiburgher Synod 
of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He was ap- 
pointed (1760) to succeed the Rev. John Mason, as Teacher 
of the Philosophical Class in the Theological Seminary. 
Mr. Mason (the well-known pastor of the Scotch Church in 
Cedar Street, New York) was then under appointment as a 
32 



498 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

missionary to America, and migrated to New York in tlie 
following spring (1761). After his arrival, lie sent home 
(1762) urgent entreaties for more missionaries, and Mr. 
Pirie was licensed, and was appointed, with Mi\ William 
Marshall, to go to America. But, in August, 1763, being 
charged Avith laxity of doctrine, he was duly brought be- 
fore the Synod, and, after a rigid investigation, was de- 
prived of his license as a probationer for the ministry, 
excommunicated from the Church, and rebuked at the bar 
of the Synod. 

Shortly after, having received a call from a congregation 
at Abernethy, Scotland, he connected himself with the 
Burgher Synod. Here, too, he met with similar treatment, 
being suspended, by his Presbytery, from the ministry. 
He then abandoned the Secession Church wholly, the rea- 
sons for his course being given (1769) in a pamphlet, enti- 
tled, — "A Keview of the Principles and Conduct of the 
Seceders," etc. He now connected himself with the Inde- 
pendents, and became the minister of a congregation at 
Newburgh, Fifeshire. After a laborious ministry, remark- 
ably fertile as to literary results, Mr. Pirie died in 1804. 

He published, besides many pamphlets, a " Dissertation 
on Baptism " (1790) 5 and " The French Revolution ; exhib- 
ited in the Light of the Sacred Oracles ; or a Series of 
Lectures on the Prophecies now fulfilling " (179.o). These 
Lectures show that he was an " acute Millenarian. " He 
proved himself a false prophet, in his application of Daniel 
and the Apocalypse. After his death, his " Miscellaneous 
and Posthumous Works " (1805-1806), in six volumes, were 
published at Edinburgh ; and (1807) " A Dissertation on 
the Hebrew Roots." 

He was the author of the excellent hymn, beginning 

" Come, let us join in songs of praise." 



ELIZABETH [PAYSON] PRENTISS. 499 

ELIZABETH [PAYSON] PRENTISS. 

1818-1878. 

Mrs. Preisttiss was the youngest daughter of the Rev. 
Edward Payson, D.D., for many years the pastor of the 
Second Congregational Church of Portland, Me., and Ann 
Louisa Shipman, of New Haven, Conn. She was born at 
Portland, October 26, 1818, and was there educated. She 
married, April 16, 1845, the Rev. George Lewis Prentiss 
[D.D.], then recently settled over a Congregational Church 
at New Bedford, Mass. In the spring of 1851, Mrs. Pren- 
tiss became a resident of the city of New York, her husband 
having accepted a call to the pastorate in that city ; and 
here, with the exception of a sojourn of two years in Eu- 
rope (1858-1860), she resided the remainder of her life. 
Her summers were spent for a number of years at her 
charming retreat at Dorset, Vt. ; where, after a brief ill- 
ness, she died, August 13, 1878, in her sixtieth year. 

Mrs. Prentiss early developed great literary taste. At 
the age of sixteen, she became a contributor to the Youth'' s 
Companion. Her publications have been numerous and 
popular. " Little Susy's Six Birthdays " appeared in 
1853 ; followed by : " Only a Dandelion, and other Stories " 
(1854); "Henry and Bessie" (1855); "Little Susy's Six 
Teachers," "Little Susy's Little Servants," and "The 
Flower of the Family" (1856); "Peterchen and Gret- 
chen," a translation from the German (1860) ; " The Little 
Preacher" (1867) ; " Little Threads," "Little Lou's Sayings 
and Doings," "Fred and Maria and Me," and "The Old 
Brown Pitcher " (1868) ; " Stepping Heavenward " and 
"Nidworth" (1869) ; "The Percys" and " The Story Lizzie 
Told" (1870); "Six Little Princesses" and "Aunt Jane's 
Hero" (1871); "Golden Hours: Hymns and Songs of the 
Christian Life " (1873) ; " Urbane and His Friends " (1874) ; 
" Griselda, a Dramatic Poem," a translation from the Ger- 
man, and "The Home at Greylock" (1876); "Pemaquid" 



500 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

(1877); "Gentleman Jim" (1878); and "Avis Benson" 
(1879) — ^the last published posthumously. 

She is probably best known as the author of " Stepping 
Heavenward," originally written as a serial. Published in 
1869, it has reached a sale of nearly 70,000 in the United 
States. It was republished in England, where it has also 
had a very extensive circulation, as well as in many of the 
British Provinces. It has been translated into German and 
French, and has passed through several editions in each 
language. In the United States alone, over 200,000 vol- 
umes of her books have been sold. 

Her hymn beginning 

"More love to thee, O Christ! " 

is found in most of the recent Collections. It was written, 
probably, as early as 1856. "Like most of her hymns," 
says her biographer, " it is simply a prayer put into the 

form of verse She did not show it, not even to her 

husband, until many years after it was written ; and she 
wondered, not a little, that, when published, it met with 
so much favor." The following hymn is taken from 
"Golden Hours": 

" O Jesus! draw nearer, 

And make thyseK dearer, 
I yearn, I am yearning for thee ; 

Come, take, for thy dwelling, 

The heart that is swelling 
With longings thy heauty to see ! 

"How languid and weary, 

How lonely and dreary, 
The days when thou hidest thy face ! 

How sorrow and sadness 

Are turned into gladness, 
By a glimpse of its love and its grace ! 

' ' Come nearer, come nearer. 

And make thyself dearer. 
Thou Joy, thou Delight of my heart I 

Close, close to thee pressing, 

I long for thy blessing, 
I cannot without it depart." 



RABANUS [MAURUS MAGNENTIUSj. 501 

RABANUS [MAURUS MAGNENTIUSJ. 

776-856. 

The authorship of the celebrated Latin hymn, "Veni, 
Creator Spiritus," has, by no means, been determined. It 
has, ordinarily, been assigned to Charlemagne, or some one 
of his coevals. Some attribute it to Gregory the Great, 
With much more reason, it has, of late, been credited to 
Archbishop Rabanus, of the ninth century. From that 
period it has been held in high honor. It has been com- 
monly used, at the creation of popes, the election of bish- 
ops, the coronation of kings, the opening of synods, and 
the elevation and translation of saints. 

Rabanus was born, in 776, at Mayence, Germany [Moreri, 
with less probability, says 788]. His parents, Rutard and 
Aldegonde, were of noble family. At ten, he was commit- 
ted to the care of Bangulfe, the Abbot of the Monastery of 
Fulde, to be trained for the church. He took the habit of 
the Religious order, and, in 801, was ordained a deacon. 
The next year, he put himself under the instructions of the 
learned Alcuin, at Tours, who gave him the name " Mau- 
rus." He returned (804) to Fulde, and devoted himself to 
study. He was ordained (814) priest, by the Archbishop of 
Mayence ; and (822) was chosen Abbot of the Monastery. 
During the next twenty years he applied himself to liter- 
ary pursuits, and wrote numerous commentaries on the 
Holy Scriptures, besides Sermons and other Treatises. In 
842, he retired from his charge of the monastery, to Mount 
St. Peter, and gave himself up to devotion and the study of 
the Scriptures, At the death of Otgar, Archbishop of May- 
ence, in 847, he was chosen to succeed him. He presided 
over the archdiocese with great wisdom and acceptance, 
diligent in study, laborious and unwearied in the perform- 
ance of his duties, and diffusing everywhere the proofs of 
his large-hearted benevolence. He was accustomed, in the 
intervals of his active labors, to retire to a monastery in the 



502 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

neighboring village of Winzel, where he died, February 4, 
856. 

He was a voluminous writer, both of poetry and prose. 
His works were published at Cologne, 1627, in six volumes, 
with his Life prefixed. Baronius calls him, " the first the- 
ologian of his times." He was, certainly, one of the most 
illustrious writers, as a philosopher, poet, and divine, of 
the ninth century. 



THOMAS RAFFLES. 

1788-1863. 

Thomas Raffles was bom. May 17, 1788, in London, 
England. His father, William, and his grandfather, were 
jDractitioners of law. At ten years of age, he professed re- 
ligion, and connected himself with the Wesleyans ; but, on 
the removal of his father's family to Peckham, he united 
with the Independent Church of that place, under the care 
of the Rev. William B. Collyer. After a careful training 
and liberal education at home, he entered (1806) Homerton 
College, to prepare for the ministry under the teaching of 
the Rev. Dr. John Pye Smith. He was ordained, June 22, 
1809, the pastor of the Independent Church at Hammer- 
smith, then a hamlet in the suburbs of London. 

After a popular and promising ministry of nearly three 
years, he was called to Great George Street Chapel, Liver- 
pool, as the successor of the youthful and eloquent Thomas 
Spencer, who was drowned in the Mersey, August 5, 1811. 
He removed to Liverpool, in February, 1812, and was in- 
stalled May 28, following. He soon attracted to his minis- 
try a crowd of admirers, and shortly became one of the 
most popular preachers of the day. In this position, in- 
creasingly useful and honored, exerting a growing influence 
for good over the entire city and through the kingdom, he 
continued to preach the Gospel and labor for his Master's 



THOMAS RAFFLES. 503 

cause, the full period of fifty years. Then, February, 1862, 
he retired, on a pension, from the active duties of the pas- 
torate. He did not long survive the cessation of his habit- 
ual labors ; he died at Liverpool, August 18, 1863, in his 
seventy-sixth year. 

Early in his ministry, he married the only daughter of 
James Hargreaves, a wealthy citizen of Liverpool, and thus 
came into the possession of an ample income, enabling him 
to engage, as he did heartily, in various works of benevo- 
lence, and to gratify his great passion for collecting au- 
tographs. Mrs. Raffles died. May 17, 1843, leaving four 
children, who survived their father. 

He published, in 1813, "The Life of the Rev. Thomas 
Spencer, of Liverpool," and " Poems by Three Friends," — 
himself, his brother-in-law Dr. James Baldwin Brown, and 
Jeremiah Holmes Wiifen. He edited, in 1815, a new and 
enlarged edition of Brown's " Self -Interpreting Bible"; and 
published his "Translation of Klopstock's Messiah," in 
three volumes. After a visit to the Continent, with his 
cousin. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, he published, in 1817, 
his " Letters during a Tour through some part of France, 
Savoy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands," — a 
book that long served as a Manual for travellers in Europe. 

His " Lectures on some important Branches of Practical 
Religion " (1820), " Lectures on some important Doctrines 
of the Gospel" (1822), and "Lectures on some important 
Branches of Christian Faith and Practice " (1825), were all 
useful and well received. These were his principal publi- 
cations. In 1842, he published a " Form of the Solemniza- 
tion of Matrimony." With his friend. Dr. Collyer, and his 
brother-in-law. Dr. J. B. BroAvn, he conducted for a few 
years The Im^estigator, a London Quarterly. He contrib- 
uted largely to the Illustrated Annuals and other periodi- 
cal papers, besides publishing frequent occasional sermons. 
In 1853, he published a Collection of Hymns as a Supple- 
ment to Dr. Watts. For many years he prepared a hymn 
for each recurring New- Year's Day, which he gathered and 
published in 1868. At the solicitation of the Dukes of 



604 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Sussex and of Somerset, tlie University of Aberdeen, Scot- 
land, honored him with the degree of LL.D. ; and, at the 
instance of his personal friend, the Kev. William B. 
Sprague, D.D., of Albany, N. Y., he was honored, in 1830, 
with the degree of D.D., by Union College, Schenectady, 
N. Y. 

The following is one of eight hymns contributed by Dr. 
Raflles to Collyer's " Supplement to Dr. Watts' Psalms and 
Hymns," London, 1812 ; its theme is "Peace of Mind": 

" Come, heavenly peace of mind! 

I sigh for thy retm-n ; 
I seek, but can not find 

The joys for which I mourn : 
All ! where 's the Saviour now, 

Whose smiles I once possessed ? 
Tin he return, I bow. 

By heaviest grief oppressed ; 
My days of happiness are gone, 
And I am left to weep alone. 

" I tried each earthly charm. 

In pleasure's haunts I strayed, 
I sought its sootliing balm, 

I asked the world its aid ; 
But, ah ! no balm it had 

To heal a womided breast, 
And I, forlorn and sad. 

Must seek another rest ; 
My days of happiness are gone, 
And I am left to weep alone. 

*' Where can the mourner go, 

And tell his tale of grief ? 
Ah ! who can soothe his woe, 

And give him sweet relief ? 
Thou, Jesus ! canst impart, 

By thy long- wished return. 
Ease to this wounded heart, 

And bid me cease to mourn ; 
Then shall this night of sorrow jB.ee, 
And I rejoice, my Lord! in thee." 



ANDEEW REED. g05 

ANDREW REED. 

1787-1862. 

It was in 1834, tliat the American cliurclies became per- 
sonally acquainted with the Rev. Dr. Reed. He, with the 
Rev. James Matheson, D.D., had been appointed by the 
Congregational Union of England and Wales, a Deputation 
to visit the churches of America. They arrived in the 
spring of 1834, spent six months in the country, visited its 
principal sections, preached frequently, made numerous 
addresses, and left a very favorable impression of their 
abilities and Christian character. 

Dr. Reed, the son of Andrew Reed, was born, November 
27, 1787, in the city of London. His parents were active 
members of New Road Chapel (Cong. ), St. George's-in-the- 
East. Though designed for a commercial life, on joining 
the church of his parents, he determined to enter the min- 
istry. After the usual preparatory course at Hackney Col- 
lege, under the instruction of the Rev. George Collison, he 
received a call from the church of which he was a member, 
and where he had grown to manhood. He was ordained to 
the pastorate, November 27, 1.811, and remained in charge 
of the same church until he was removed by death, at Hack- 
ney, London, February 25, 1862. 

He was, during the half century of his ministry, one of 
the most popular and successful preachers of England. 
The place of worship speedily became crowded, and so con- 
tinued, until, in June, 1831, they removed to their new house 
of worship, Wycliffe C'liapel, St. Vincent Street, Commer- 
cial Road, of much larger capacity. This, also, was com- 
pletely filled by an admiring and greatly attached congre- 
gation. On the occasion of his visit to America, the hon- 
orary degree of D.D. was conferred upon him and his asso- 
ciate, by Yale College. 

Dr. Reed entered largely into the work of philanthropy. 
He was the founder of the London Orphan Asylum, at 



506 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Lower Clapton (1820) ; the Infant Orphan Asylum, at 
Wanstead ; the Asylum for Fatherless Children, near 
Croydon (1847) ; the Asylum for Idiots, at Earlswood, near 
Reigate ; the Royal Hospital for Incurables ; and the East- 
em Counties Asylum for Idiots, at Colchester. He also 
took an active and prominent part in missionary efforts 
at home and abroad. 

The publication of his " No Fiction; A Narrative, founded 
on Fact," in 1818, excited an unusual interest, especially as 
the hero of the book, whom he called Lef evre and supposed 
incorrectly to be dead, published an indignant and volu- 
minous reply. Dr. Reed's book has had a wide circulation 
and a frequent republication. His " Martha," in 1821, was 
designed as a "Memorial of an only and beloved Sister." 
It contains an interesting account of his own early train- 
ing at home, as well as hers. On his return from America, 
he published (1835), in two volumes, "A Narrative of the 
Visit to the American Churches, by the Deputation," etc. 
His observation of the Revival Work in America led him 
to prosecute similar work among his own people. A re- 
vival of religion followed, giving occasion to " A Narrative 
of the Revival of Religion in Wycliffe Chapel" (1839). 
This was followed, in 1843, by the "Advancement of 
Religion the Claim of the Times." Numerous sermons, 
charges, and addresses, appeared at various periods of 
his ministry, which were gathered (1861) into a separate 
volume. 

In 1817, he published a Supplement to Dr. Watts' Psalms 
and Hymns, and an enlarged edition in 1825. At length, 
in 1841, he published a new Compilation, called " The 
Hymn-Book," containing' 840 hymns^ 21 of which are from 
his own pen, and 19 from the pen of his accomplished wife. 
He married, in 1816, Miss Elizabeth Holmes, the daughter 
of a prosperous merchant of London. She was the mother 
of seven children, five of whom survived her. She died, 
July 4, 1867. One of her sons, Charles Reed, was a Mem- 
ber of Parliament (1858-1874) for Hackney, and a Delegate 
to the (Ecumenical Council of the Evangelical Alliance, 



BARTHOLOMEW EINGWALDT. 507 

that met at New York, in October, 1873. The Memoirs of 
Dr. Keed were edited and published (1863) by his two sons, 
Andrew and Charles. Drs. Reed and Raffles (see the pre- 
vious Sketch) were almost exactly coevals, with a great 
similarity in their i)ersonal history. Many of his hymns 
have become familiar, and are found in most of the current 
Compilations. The following is one of his best hymns : 

" My longing spirit faints to see 
The glories of that place, 
Where dwells the great united Three, 
In majesty and grace. 

" Amidst the busy scenes of time, 
Amidst its joys and cares, 
My soul surveys that purer clime, 
And to its God repau's. 

" There shall thy grace possess my heart. 
And dwell and reign alone ; 
Each trace of evil shall depart. 
Nor gather near thy throne. 

" There love shall swell and overflow, 
My fervent zeal shall soar ; 
And still the more of God I know. 
The more shall I adore. 

" There every selfish care will end; 
How pui'e each thought will be. 
When all my hopes to God ascend. 
And God is all to me ! " 



BARTHOLOMEW RINGWALDT. 

1530-1598. 

It was Bartholomew Ringwaldt, and not Martin Luther, 
who wrote the Judgment Hymn, of which Dr. Collyer gave 
a translation of the first stanza, 

" Great God! what do I see and hear," etc. 



608 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Ringwaldt was an eminent pastor of the Lutheran Church 
of Langfeldt, in Prussia. He was born (1530) at Frankfort- 
on-the-Oder, and was trained to manhood in times of great 
tribulation, in which he himself was called to bear no in- 
considerable part. He suffered much from famine and 
pestilence, fire and floods, as well as other calamities. His 
hymns, in consequence, are mostly in the minor key. They 
show that, in common with many, he was looking for the 
speedy coming of Christ to judgment. His "Hymns for 
the Sundays and Festivals of the Whole Year " were pub- 
lished in 1581. The Second Advent Hymn, 

" Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit," etc., 
[" The trumpet sounds! — the day has come,"] 

of which the Rev. Dr. Mills has given an excellent transla- 
tion, was written in 1585, something after the manner of 
Celano's celebrated "Dies Irse." In Miss Winkworth's 
" Christian Singers of Germany," is given a translation of 
one of his penitential hymns, full of devout faith. He died 
in 1598. 



JOHN RIPPON. 
1751-1836. 

The Collection known as "Rippon's Hymns" has long 
been a favorite both in England and America. For a long 
time, it was the principal manual of praise among the Bap- 
tist churches of the Old and the New World. 

Dr. John Rippon was a native of Tiverton, in Devonshire, 
England, and was born, April 29, 1751. At an early age, he 
became a devout Christian, and connected himself with the 
Ba]3tist Church of his native place. He determined to enter 
the ministry of the Gospel ; and obtained a suitable prepa- 
ration for the work at the Baptist Academy in Bristol, 
under the instructions of the Rev. Hugh Evans, and his 



JOHN EIPPON. 509 

son, the Eev. Caleb Evans. At the close of his preparatory- 
course (1772), he was invited to supply the pulpit of the 
Particular Baptist Church, Carter Lane, Tooley Street, Lon- 
don, made vacant by the decease, October 14, 1771, of their 
eminent and venerable pastor, the Rev. Dr. John Gill. 
Having preached about a year on trial, he was ordained 
the pastor of the church, November 11, 1773. Devoting 
himself to the work of his pastorate, he seldom came be- 
fore the public through the press. His first publication 
of importance was " A Selection of Hymns from the best 
Authors, including a great ISTumber of Originals, intended 
as an Appendix to Dr. Watts' Psalms and Hymns. Lon- 
don: 1817."'. In 1800, he published a "tenth, and en- 
larged edition," containing sixty hymns, in addition to the 
588 of the original edition. The 27th edition (1827) was 
also very considerably enlarged, — 200,000 copies having, at 
that time, been put into circulation in Great Britain. The 
second American edition Avas issued in 1813, followed sub- 
sequently by a large number of editions. 

Dr. Rippon was a great admirer of Dr. Watts' Psalms 
and Hymns, and took unwearied pains to secure — by a care- 
ful collation of all the editions of them to the close of the 
eighteenth century, and especially of "the Doctor's own 
Editions " — an accurate edition, free from blunders and er- 
rors. As the result, he published, in 1801, "An Arrange- 
ment of the Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs of the 
Rev. Isaac Watts, D.D.," disposed according to subjects, 
and numbering 718 Psalms and Hymns. It is prob- 
ably the most accurate edition of Dr. Watts' book ever 
published. The Preface to the " Arrangement " is a valu- 
able document. This was followed in 1810 by "An Index 
of all the Lines in Watts' Hymns and Psalms," — a corrected 
edition, probably, of Dr. Guy's "Complete Index to Dr. 
Watts' H:yTnns" (1773), and "Do. to Dr. W.'s Psalms" 
(1774). He edited, in 1816, a new edition, in 9 vols, quarto, 
of Dr. John Gill's "Exposition of the Old and New Testa- 
ments," with a Memoir prefixed, which was published also 
separately, in 1838. He published at various times during 



510 THE POETS OP THE CHURCH. 

his long ministry, a considerable number of Sermons, Dis- 
courses, Addresses, etc. He also edited the "Baptist An- 
nual Register" from 1790 to 1802. A volume of "Divine 
Aspirations," also came from his pen. 

Dr. Rippon finished his long and useful life, December 
17, 1836, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, and the sixty- 
fourth of his ministry. His remains were deposited in 
Bunhill Fields Cemetery. The two pastorates of Drs. Gill 
and Rippon covered a period of one hundred and seven- 
teen years. 

It is known that Dr. Rippon contributed several original 
hymns (anonymously) to his "Selection"; but it is now al- 
most impossible to distinguish them. Gadsby, in his " Me- 
moirs of Hymn- Writers and Compilers," says of the follow - 
ing hymn, on " The Use of the Moral Law to the Convinced 
Sinner," — " I think the hymn was his own, as I can not find 
it in any book earlier than his Selection": 

" Here, Lord ! my soul convicted stands 
Of breaking all thy ten commands ; 
And on me justly might'st thou pour 
Thy wrath in one eternal shower. 

" But, thanks to God! its loud alarms 
Have warned me of approaching harms ; 
And now, O Lord ! my wants I see ; 
Lost and undone, I come to thee. 

" I see, my fig-leaf righteousness 
Can ne'er thy broken law redress ; 
Yet in thy gospel-plan I see, 
There's hope of pardon e'en for me. 

" Here I behold thy wonders. Lord! 
How Christ hath to thy law restored 
Those honors, on th' atoning day, 
Which guilty sinners took away. 

" Amazing wisdom, power, and love, 
Displayed to rebels from above ! 
Do thou, O Lord ! my faith increase 
To love and trust thy plan of grace." 



ROBERT II. (KING OF FRANCE). gH 

ROBERT II. (KING OF FRANCE). 
971-1031. 
Numerous versions of the ancient Latin hymn, 
" Veni, Sancte Spiritus," 

are to be found in the Collections. The original is justly 
esteemed as one of " the loveliest of all the hymns in the 
whole circle of Latin sacred poetry." Its paternity has 
been a matter of much dispute, but is now, by the best 
critics, accorded to Robert, the son of Hugh Capet. Trench, 
whose words are given above, says, that " he was singularly 
addicted to church-music, which he enriched, as well as the 
hymnology, with compositions of his own, such as, I be- 
lieve, even now hold their place in the services of the Ro- 
man Church." 

Robert II., King of France, was born in 971, and suc- 
ceeded to the throne at the death of his father, 996. He 
became enamored of his cousin. Bertha, the daughter of 
Conrad (King of Burgundy) and Maud of France. The 
propriety of his marrying her was submitted to a coun- 
cil of the bishops of the Idngdom, who gave their consent, 
and he was married by Archambauld, the Archbishop of 
Tours. But the Pope, Gregory V., opposed it, and, in a 
council held at Rome, in 998, decreed the dissolution of 
the marriage ; and, on the refusal of Robert to j)ut his wife 
away, he laid the kingdom under an interdict. Such was 
the effect of this arbitrary and despotic measure on the 
subjects and even the domestics of the King, as to compel 
him at length to dismiss the object of his love. Subse- 
quently he married Constance, sumamed Blanche, the 
daughter of William, Count of Aries and Provence, — a 
haughty and imiDerious woman, whose temper caused him 
no little trouble. 

His reign extended thiough nearly thirty-four years, a 
period of much turbulence and violence. Much as he was 



512 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

averse to scenes of war, he promptly and effectually sub- 
dued his enemies, and then devoted himself to literature 
and benevolence. He erected a large number of magnifi- 
cent churches for the promotion of religion, and repaired 
the old. Such was his charity, that he furnished food for 
a great number of the poor, and encouraged them to ap- 
proach him with their distresses and complaints. He died, 
July 20, 1031. He was so accustomed to take part with the 
choir in the Church of St. Denis, and to write hymns with 
music for their use, that, as Nicholas Gilles relates, "his 
wife Queen Constance asked him to make some hymns in 
her praise. To content her, in appearance, he wrote a 
hymn in honor of St. Denis and other martyrs, beginning 
with ' constantia martyrum ! ' and the Queen, being igno- 
rant of Latin, and supposing it to be in honor of herself, 
was wont to sing it, not knowing what she said." 



WILLIAM EOBEETSON. 
1743. 

Tliree of the " Paraphrases " attached to the Scotch Ver- 
sion of "The Psalms of David"— the 2oth, the 42d, and the 
43d — are attributed to the Rev. William Robertson. He is 
best known as the father of his more illustrious son. Principal 
William Robertson, D.D., the celebrated historical writer. 
He was descended from a respectable family in Gladney, 
Fifeshire, and was born, it is thought, in Gladsmuir, East 
Lothian, of which parish his father was the minister. He 
was trained for the ministry ; and soon after his licensure, 
he officiated, it is said, for the Scots' church, worshipping 
at that time in Founder's Hall, Lothbury, London. 

His first settlement was at Borthwick, Mid- Lothian, Scot- 
land, as early certainly as 1720. He married a daughter of 
David Pitcairn, Esq., of Dreghorn. She became the moth- 



WILLIAM EOBERTSON. 513 

er of two sons (of wliom tlie historian, born in 1721, was 
the elder), and six daughters. One of the latter married 
the Rev. James Syme, and her* only daughter, Eleanora, 
was the mother of the eminent Lord Brougham. In 1783, 
Mr. Eobertson was transferred to the Old Grey friars' 
Church, Edinburgh, where his brother-in-law, the Rev. Mr. 
Nesbit, was also settled. He continued in this charge until 
his death, in 1743 ; — his wife's death occurred within a few 
hours of his own. He seems to have taken but little part 
in the ecclesiastical agitations of the period (the Marrow 
controversy), and to have been a laborious and useful pas- 
tor. His "Scripture Songs" were published in 1751. The 
following stanzas from his version of the 53d chapter of 
Isaiah, constituting the 25th of the Scotch Paraphrases, are 
quite creditable : 

" How few receive with cordial faith 

The tidings which we bring ! 
How few have seen the arm i-evealed 

Of heaven's eternal King! 
The Saviour conies! no outward pomp 

Bespeaks his presence nigh ; 
No earthly beauty shines in him 

To draw the carnal eye. 

" Fair as a beauteous tender flower 

Amidst the desert grows, 
So, slighted by a rebel race, 

The heavenly Saviour rose : 
Rejected and despised of men, 

Behold a man of woe ! 
Grief was his close companion still, 

Through all his life below. 

" Yet all the gi'iefs he felt were ours. 
Ours were the woes he bore ; 
Pangs, not his own, his spotless soul 

With bitter anguish tore : 
"We held him as condemned by Heaven, 

An outcast from his God, 
While for our sins he groaned, he bled, 
Beneath his Father's rod." 
33 



514 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

CHARLES SEYMOUR ROBINSON. 

1829 . 

The Rev. Dr. Charles S. Robinson was born at Ben- 
nington, Vermont, March 31, 1829. He was educated at 
Williams College, Mass., wliere he graduated in 1849. He 
studied for the ministry, one year (1852-1853) at Union 
Theological Seminary, New York City, and two years (1853- 
1855) at Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey. He 
was ordained, and installed the pastor of the Park Presby- 
terian Church of Troy, N. Y., April 19, 1855. At the end of 
live years, he removed to Brooklyn, N. Y. , and became the 
pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of that city. In the 
spring of 1868, he accepted an appointment to the charge 
of the American Chapel in Paris, France, entering on his 
work there in May, 1868, and continuing until September, 
1870, when he returned to America, and accepted a call 
from the Eleventh Presbyterian Church of New York. 

After a brief visit to Paris, in the summer of 1871, he 
took charge of the church then in Fifty-fifth Street, near 
Third Avenue, New York, and still continues in that pas- 
torate. Mainly through his efforts, the congregation un- 
dertook and completed the erection of a spacious and costly 
church-edifice (Madison Avenue and Fifty-third Street, 
where they now worship), known as the " Memorial Pres- 
byterian Church." 

Dr. Robinson compiled, in 1862, a volume of Hymns and 
Tunes, for Public AVorship, known as " The Songs of the 
Church.'- A much more complete Com.pilation, entitled, 
" Songs for the Sanctuary," followed in 1865, — a work that 
has obtained a wide circulation, and achieved great popu- 
larity. A Chapel Edition was issued in 1872. In 1874, he 
published "Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs"; and, 
in 1878, "A Selection of Spiritual Songs, with Music, for 
the Church and Choir." These were followed by " Spirit- 
ual Songs for Social Worship," and " Spiritual Songs for 



ROBERT ROBINSON. 515 

the Sunday- School." In all these books Dr. Robinson has 
maintained his hold upon the popular taste ; and in his 
latest volume, "Laudes Domini, a Selection of Spiritual 
Songs Ancient and Modern " (1884), he has sought " to lead 
the taste of congregations and choirs towards a higher class 
of lyrics and music than has hitherto found acceptance in 
the churches." In addition to these musical Compilations, 
he published, in 1868, " Short Studies for Sunday-School 
Teachers"; in 1874, "The Memorial Pulpit," two volumes 
of his sermons ; and, in 1883, " Studies of Neglected Texts." 
In 1866, he received the honorary degree of D.D., from 
Hamilton College, New York. 



ROBERT ROBINSON. 

1735-1790. 

Robert Robiistson was born, September 27, 1735, at Swaff- 
ham, in Norfolk, England. His father, Michael Robinson, 
was an exciseman, and a native of Scotland. His mother, 
Mary, was the only daughter of Robert Wilkin, of Milden- 
hall, Suffolk. His parents were both of the Church of 
England, and he was their youngest child. At the age of 
six, he was sent to a Latin school, and soon exhibited re- 
markable capacity. In 1743, the family removed to Scar- 
ning. Not long subsequently, his father absconded on 
account of debt, and shortly after died at Winchester. 
His mother was, in consequence, subjected to great straits, 
and was compelled to keep boarders, and to ply her needle, 
for support. At the grammar-school of the town, taught 
by the Rev. Joseph Brett, the boy made marked profi- 
ciency, especially in the languages. 

At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to Joseph 
Anderson, a hair-dresser in London. He soon proved him- 
self qualified for a higher calling. He gained time by early 
rising, and devoted it to study. His first serious impres- 



516 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

sions were the result of hearing Rev. George Whitefield 
preach (May 24, 1752) a sermon from the text, — "Who 
hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He 
went to the Tabernacle out of curiosity, " pitying the poor 
deluded Methodists, but came away envying their happi- 
ness." For the next two years and a half, he constantly 
resorted to the Tabernacle ; but it was not until the end of 
1755, that he found " full and free forgiveness through the 
precious blood of Jesus Christ." 

After five years' service, his master returned him his in- 
dentures, and he made a visit to his relatives at Mildenhall, 
intending to engage in farming. Associating with the pious 
people of the neighborhood, he was urged to preach to 
them, and complied. His youth and marked ability drew 
many to hear him from the adjoining towns, and brought 
him invitations to other places. He was sent for, soon after, 
to preach in the Tabernacle at Norwich. This was early in 
1758. After a while he left the Methodists, and formed 
an independent church, of which he became the pastor. 
Having adopted Baptist principles, he was immersed by 
Mr. Dunkhorn, of EUingham in Norfolk. In July, 1759, 
he accepted an invitation to preach to the Baptist congre- 
gation at Cambridge ; and, about the same time, married 
Miss Ellen Payne, of Norwich. Having bound the church 
to open communion, he was ordained in 1761. 

The congregation was poor, and his annual income small, — 
at first scarcely amounting to £15, and at no time exceeding 
£90. His popularity enabled him to procure the erection, 
at the end of three years, of a good house of worship. His 
labors were abundant. He preached twice or thrice on the 
Sabbath, and several times through the week in the adja- 
cent villages. In 1773, to supplement his small salary, he 
entered into the business of farming and trading,— his fam- 
ily then consisting of his wife and nine children with his 
aged mother. He died, on a journey, at Birmingham, June 
9, 1790. He was found dead in his bed. He continued in 
charge of the Baptist Church at Cambridge until his death. 

With all his other occupations, he found time for much 



ROBERT ROBINSON. 517 

literary work. His "Arcana," issued in 1774, attracted 
much attention. Besides several sermons and pamphlets, 
of various dates, he edited a Translation of " Saurin's Ser- 
mons," in 5 vols. , with a " Memoii' of Saurin and the French 
Reformation " (1775-1782) ; and, in 1776, he published " A 
Plea for the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ," — said to 
have been derived from the French of Dr. Abbadie, in his 
" Vindication of the Truth of the Christian Religion." The 
work attracted great attention and was well received both 
by Churchmen and Dissenters, "An Essay on the Com- 
position of a Sermon," followed in 1777 ; " A Plan of Lec- 
tures on the Principles of Nonconformity," in 1778 ; " The 
General Doctrine of Toleration applied to the Particular 
Case of Free Communion," in 1780 ; his " Political Cate- 
chism," in 1782 ; and a volume of " Tillage Sermons," in 
1786. His " History of BaiDtism," and his " Ecclesiastical 
Researches," were published after his death. His " Miscel- 
laneous Works," with a Memoir of his Life, were published 
in 1807, by Benjamin Flower, the father of Mrs. Sarah 
Flower Adams. 

Mr. Robinson was an admirable preacher. He com- 
manded the attention of the most scholarly minds, even 
of the University, and was regarded with great favor by the 
undergraduates. The celebrated Robert Hall remarked 
(1787) on one occasion : " Mr. Robinson had a musical 
voice, and was master of all its intonations ; he had wonder- 
ful self-possession, and could say what he pleased, wJien 
he pleased, and tiow he pleased." The Rev. William 
Jay, of Bath, says of him : " For disentangling a subject 
from confusion, for the power of development, for genuine 
simplification, for invention, — what writer ever surpassed 
Robinson of Cambridge?" He was a great favorite in 
London, and other large towns, — always drawing crowds to 
hear him. 

His attached people, " the Congregation of Stone- Yard," 
erected in the Old Meeting House at Birmingham, where 
he was buried, a Tablet to his memory, with this inscrip- 
tion (written by his successor, the Rev. Robert Hall): " Sa- 



518 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

cred to the Memory of the Rev. Eobert Robinson, of 
Cambridge, the intrepid Champion of Liberty Civil and 
Religious ; endowed with a Genius brilliant and penetrat- 
ing, united with an indefatigable Industry, his Mind was 
richly furnished with an inexhaustible Variety of Knowl- 
edge. His Eloquence was the Delight of every public As- 
sembly, and his Conversation the Charm of every private 
Circle. In him the Erudition of the Scholar, the Discrim- 
ination of the Historian, and the Boldness of the Reformer, 
were united, in an eminent Degree, with the Virtues which 
adorn the Man and the Christian." 

The only hymns that are known to have been written by 
Mr. Robinson, are the three following : 

" Brightness of the Father's glory ! " etc., 
** Come, thou Fount of every blessing! "etc., 

" Mighty God ! while angels bless thee," etc. 



CHRISTIAN KNORR VON ROSENROTH. 

1636-1689. 

The German hymn, " Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit," of 
which there are several excellent English versions, was 
written by an eminent German scholar, of distinguished 
rank in society. He was a Silesian, and was born, July 15, 
1636, at Altranden, in the Principality of Wohlau, of which 
parish his father was the pastor. He pursued his aca- 
demical studies at Stettin, Leipsic, and Wittenberg, and be- 
came a proficient in the Oriental tongues. Leaving the Uni- 
versity, he travelled over Holland, France, and England, 
still prosecuting his studies. He became an adept, not only 
in philosophy and chemistry, but in theology and cabalis- 
tic lore, some of the results of which he gave to the press. 



JOHN ROWE. 519 

He liad a memory so extraordinary, that lie " knew nearly 
the whole Bible by heart. " 

On his return from foreign countries, much improved by 
travel, a title of nobility [Baron] was conferred upon him 
by the youthful Emperor, Leopold I. He was, also, ap- 
pointed (1668) Privy Councillor and Prime Minister of 
Count Christian Augustus, of the Palatinate at Salzbach. 
His piety was of a high order — eminently subjective, as ap- 
pears from his seventy-five hymns, which breathe the ut- 
most devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, and are admirable 
specimens of lyric poetry. These heart-effusions, as they 
pre-eminently may be styled, were written mostly in sea- 
sons of relaxation, often during his rambles, and for the 
gratification of his wife, by whom they were published 
after his decease. The hymn noticed above, it is thought, 
was composed during an early morning walk, as the sun 
was rising. He foretold the hour of his death, — exactly 
as it occurred. May 4, 1689. In the tone of his piety, and 
the style of his poetry, he belonged to the school of Frank 
and Scheffler [Angelus], who were considerably his seniors, 
though his contemj)oraries. He wrote an " Evangelical His- 
tory," and " Kabbala Denudata," an exposition of Hebrew 
doctrines. 



JOHN ROWE. 

1764-1832. 

Mr. Rowe was, for thirty-four years, a Dissenting 
minister of Bristol, England. He was the sixth child of 
William Rowe, of Spenceoomb, near Crediton, w^here he was 
bom, April 17, 1764. He was, from his boyhood, trained 
for the ministry. For a time, he was taught in the classical 
school of the Rev. Joseph Bretland. Then he entered the 
Hoxton Academy, from which, at its dissolution, he was 
transferred to Hackney College (1786-1787). 



520 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

At the expiration of his college course (1787), he became 
one of the ministers of the High Street Presbyterian 
Church of Shrewsbury. The next year (1788), he married 
his cousin, Miss Mary Clarke. In 1797, he was chosen one 
of the ministers of Lewin's Mead Chapel, Bristol, having 
the Rev. Dr. John P. Estlin, as his colleague, until 1817, 
and then (until his own decease) the Rev. Dr. Lant Car- 
penter, — both of them highly distinguished as Unitarian 
ministers. Mr. Rowe was, also, a Unitarian. He was re- 
garded as a "serious, earnest, and impressive" preacher, 
devoting "himself with great assiduity to his pastoral 
duties." He took an active part in the promotion of the 
charities of Bristol, and was a decided Liberal in i)olitics. 

Mr. Rowe lost five of his children in their infancy ; and, in 
his later years, he was also sorely tried by affliction. His 
endeared brother, Lawrence Rowe, died in 1823 ; and his be- 
loved wife, in 1825. Shortly after, his only surviving son 
died in Mexico ; and his eldest daughter, Mrs. Benjamin H. 
Bright, soon followed. In January, 1831, he himself was 
affected with paralysis ; compelling him, in the summer of 
1832, to resign his charge, and, with his only surviving 
child, a devoted daughter, to proceed to Italy. The last 
few weeks of his life were spent at Sienna, where he died, 
"perfectly resigned and composed," July 2, 1832, in his 
sixty-ninth year. 

He published a "Sermon," in 1803, at Bristol; besides 
which, it does not appear that he committed anything else 
to the press. 



JOHN RYLAND. 

1753-1825. 

The Rev. Benjamin Beddome, a former pastor of the 
Baptist Church of Bourton-on-the- Water, Gloucestershire, 
England, is well kno\vn as a writer of hymns, many of 



JOHN RYLAND. 521 



October 2, 1741, was a yontli of eighteen, John CoUett Ry- 
land, the son of Joseph Ryland and Freelove Collett, of 
Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. This young man, in 
1750, became the pastor of the Baptist Church of War- 
wick. Shortly before, December 23, 1748, he had married 
Elizabeth, the only daughter of Samuel Frith, of Warwick. 
Their home was the Rectory of St. Mary's Church, which 
they hired of the Rev. Dr. Tate, the Rector. Here their 
son, John, was born, January 29, 1753. 

The elder Ryland was a prodigy in Hebrew, and taught 
it to his boy from his verj'' infancy. Speaking of the 23d 
Psalm in Hebrew, the son says : " I remember reading that 
Psalm to Mr. Hervey, when my father visited him in the 
summer of 1758." Of the son's proficiency in Greek, also, 
his father makes this record: "Finished reading and 
translating the whole Greek Testament, December 12th, 
1761. The whole done in eight months and twelve days. 
Aged eight years ten months." John, of course, became a 
scholar. As to his religious training, he says : " My mother 
taught me a great deal of Scripture history, by explaining 
to me the pictures on the Dutch tiles in the parlor chim- 
ney at Warwick." 

In the autumn of 1759, the father became the pastor of 
the Baptist Church of Northampton, teaching, also, a 
school to eke out a scanty salary, and to educate his own 
childi'en. In his fifteenth year, John was converted ; and 
was baptized by his father, September 13, 1767. He at once 
took an active part in religious exercises, and began a 
course of study for the ministry. After a public trial of 
his abilities, he received the approbation of the church as 
a preacher, March 10, 1771, in his eighteenth year. 

During the next ten years, he was associated with his 
father as a teacher in his school, preaching every Sabbath, 
either in Northampton, or in the adjacent villages, perfect- 
ing himself, in the meantime, in classical and theological 
knowledge. In 1781, he was ordained as his father's col- 
league. Previous to this time, he had made frequent 



522 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

contributions to religious periodicals, especially The Gos- 
pel Magazine, both in poetry and prose. His signatures 
were, "J. R. jr.," and "Elacliistoteros." His familiar 
hymn, beginning, as most generally sung, 

" In all my Lord's appointed ways," 

appeared in The Gospel Magazine, for May, 1775, in nine 
stanzas, as in Rippon's Selection ; it begins, in the original, 
with the stanza, 

" When Abram's servant to procure 
A wife for Isaac went, 
Rebecca met liis suit preferred, 
Her parents gave consent." 

It was written, December 30, 1773, when he was nearly 
twenty-one years old. Of course Dr. Belcher's story about 
its origin is apocryphal. The hymn, beginning with 

" Sovereign Ruler of the skies," 

bears date, August 1, 1777, and contains nine single stan- 
zas. His best hymn, 

" O Lord! I would delight in thee," etc., 

was written, December 3, 1777, in seven stanzas { and ap- 
pended to the hymn in the original MS., is a note, added 
long afterwards, in these words : "I recollect deeper feel- 
ings of mind in composing this hymn than, perhaps, I ever 
felt in maldng any other." 

In 1786, by reason of pecuniary embarrassment, the 
father removed to Enfield, nine miles north of London, and 
took charge of a large school. The pastoral work thus 
devolved solely on the son. In company with Fuller, of 
Kettering, and Sutcliffe, of Olney, at the instance mainly 
of William Carey, he took part in organizing, at Fuller's 
house, October 2, 1792, the "Baptist Missionary Society"; 
in the promotion of whose interests he labored as long as 
he lived. His father died, July 29, 1792. The same year, 



JOHN EYLAND. 533 

lie received the honorary degree of D.D., from Brown Uni- 
versity, R. I,, U. S. A. After repeated solicitations, lie 
removed, December, 1793, to Bristol, to take charge of the 
Baptist Academy, as the successor of the Rev. Dr. Caleb 
Evans, and to become the pastor of the Baptist Church, 
Broadmead. The duties of these two offices he continued 
to perform until death. After the decease (1815) of his 
devoted friend, Andrew Fuller, he accepted, also, the posi- 
tion of Secretary of the " Baptist Missionary Society " — de- 
volving the labors mainly oh a junior Secretary. In 1821, 
his health broke down, and he continued to fail more and 
more, until May 25, 1825, when his death occurred, in his 
seventy-third year. He was twice married. 

A list of thirty-four publications from his pen is at- 
tached to the brief Memoir (edited by his son, Jonathan 
Edwards Ryland) prefixed to his " Pastoral Memorials," in 
two volumes, published the year after his death. They are 
mostly single discourses, charges, ordination and funeral 
sermons. In addition, he published, in 1814, "A Candid 
Statement of the Reasons which induce the Baptists to 
differ in Opinion and Practice from so many of their Chris- 
tian Brethren"; and in 1816, "The Work of Faith, the 
Labor of Love, and the Patience of Hope illustrated, in 
the Life and Death of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, of Ketter- 
ing." His "Christianse Militise Viaticum; or A Brief 
Directory for Evangelical Ministers," first published about 
thirty years before his death, has gone through several edi- 
tions. Mr. Sedgwick, of London, issued a reprint of his 
(99) Hymns. 

About six weeks before his death (April 11, 1825), he 
wrote : " For seventy- two years I never was prevented from 
attending public worship, since I was old enough to be 
taken to it, for two Lord's Days together, that I know of ; 
I am persuaded I never was for three. And for fifty-four 
years have never been hindered from preaching by illness, 
unless two or three times, at distant periods, for a single 
Sabbath." 

The following hymn was contributed to the May Num- 



524 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ber of the Gospel Magazine, for 1776, on tlie tteme,— " The 
fire [of divine love] saith not, ' It is enough' ": 

" If I from others differ aught, 
Lord ! 'twas thy grace the difference wrought ; 
If I one holy wish have known, 
That wish was given by thee alone. 

" To taste thy love is sweeter far 
Than all earth's dainties choice and rare ; 
'Tis heaven to see thy smiling face, 
Ten heavens to feel thy Spirit's rays. 

" I cannot pay the thanks I owe, 
For tasting once thy love below ; 
Yet cannot rest, till I, above. 
Shall feast for ever on thy love. 

" The smallest drop of precious grace 
Demands a ceaseless song of praise; 
Yet largest draughts from mercy's store 
But make me long and pant for more, 

" For teaching this, thy name I bless, — 
That holiness is happiness ; 
Quite happy I shall never be. 
Till I am quite conformed to thee. 

" Oh! strengthen me thy wUl to do, 
And what thou wilt to suffer too ; 
Imperfect here, I long to soar 
Where I shall disobey no more. 

" Lord! be thy pleasure always mine; 
I wish to have no will but thine ; 
This, this is heaven enough for me, 
Quite to be swallowed up in thee." 



MAEIA GRACE SAFFERY. 525 

MARIA GRACE SAFFERY. 

1773-1858. 

Mrs. Saffery, the author of the sweet hymn, 

" God of the sunlight hours! how sad," 

was the wife of a Baptist minister, the pastor of a church at 
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. The particulars of her early 
history are not accessible. She published, in her younger 
days, a romance and a brief poem. At the age of sixty 
years she gathered up the effusions of her previous life, 
and published them (1834) with the title : " Poems on Sa- 
cred Subjects." Several of these were written for particu- 
lar occasions, at her husband's suggestion. Two of her 
hymns were contributed to Dr. Liefchild's " Hymns appro- 
priated to Christian Union, Selected and Original," Lon- 
don, 1846 ; and several to the Baptist Magazine. She 
ended her earthly course, March 5, 1858, at the great age 
of eighty-five years. 

The following hymn, on the "Baptismal Rite," in the 
English Baptist Collection, reproduced in " The Psalmist," 
Boston, 1843, is from her pen ; it was written previous 
to 1818 : 

" 'Tis the great Father we adore, 
In this baptismal sign ; 
'Tis he, whose voice, on Jordan's shore, 
Proclaimed the Son divine. 

" The Father owned him; let our breath 
In answering praise ascend, 
As, in the image of his death 
We own our heavenly Friend. 

" We seek the consecrated grave. 
Along the path he ti'od ; 
Receive us in the hallowed wave, 
Thouholy Sonof God! 



THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

' Let earth and heaven our zeal record, 
And future witness bear, 
That we, to Zion's mighty Lord, 
Our full allegiance swear. 

' Oh ! that our conscious souls may own, 
With joy's serene survey, 
Inscribed upon his judgment throne, 
The transcript of this day." 



GEORGE SAISDYS. 
1577-1643. 

George Sat^dys was an accomplished scholar and a true 
poet. Montgomery regarded his Paraphrases of the Psalms 
as by far the most poetical in the English language. 

He was the seventh and youngest son of the Rev. Dr. 
Edwin Sandys, then the Archbishop of York, England ; 
and brother of Sir Edwin Sandys, the second son of his 
father. He was born, in 1577, at Bishopsthorpe, his father's 
residence. He was matriculated as a member of St. Mary's 
Hall, Oxford, in December, 1589, but received his tuition in 
Corpus Christi College. In August, 1610, he started on an 
extensive tour through Europe and into Asia and Africa, 
perfecting himself in the languages of the countries that 
he visited ; and returning in 1612. Of this journey, he 
published a poetic description, entitled, "The Traveller's 
Thauksgiving." A prose account, in small folio, followed 
in 1615, with the title: "A Relation of a Journey begun 
An. Dom. 1610. Foure Bookes. Containing a description 
of the Turkish Empire, of Aegypt, of the Holy Land, of 
the Remote parts of Italy, and Hands adioyning." It was 
far in advance of any previous " Travels " published in Eng- 
land, in relation to these distant regions. 



GEORGE SANDYS. 597 

His society, thenceforward, was eagerly sought by the 
wise and learned and accomi)lished. In 1619, liis brother. 
Sir Edwin Sandys, became the Treasurer of the London 
Company for planting a Colony in Virginia, and sent him 
to the New World, as his representative. While there, on 
the banks of the James River, he occupied his spare mo- 
ments, " snatched from the hours of night and repose," in 
the translation of "Ovid's Metamorphoses," into English 
verse ;— the hrst literary production, of any rank or name, 
penned in the wilds of America and to be credited 

" To that new-found-out- world, where sober night 
Takes from th' Antipodes her silent flight," 

as he expresses it in his " Review of God's Mercies to him 
in his Travels." His Translation of Ovid was published 
soon after his return, in 1621. The folio edition of his 
book (1626) was dedicated to Charles I., who appointed 
him one of the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber to his 
Majesty, 

He published, in 1636, " A Paraphrase upon the Psalmes 
of David, and upon the Hymnes dispersed throughout the 
Old and New Testament." In subsequent editions, "Para- 
phrases on Job, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations," 
were included. In 1640, he published a Translation of 
Hugo Grotius' Latin tragedy on "Christ's Passion." He 
resided, in later years, mostly with his brother-in-law. Sir 
Francis Wenman, at Caswell, near Whitney, Herefordshire. 
He died at the house of his niece. Lady Margaret Wyatt, 
Boxley Abbey, Kent, the first week in March, 1643. His 
burial occurred on the 7th of March, in the parish church 
of Boxley. He was never married. 

He had visited the Holy Land in March, 1611, and made 
the circuit of the Holy Places at Jerusalem and Bethlehem, 
of which he gives minute descriptions and numerous dia- 
grams. At "the Temple of the Sepulchre," which he vis- 
ited on "IMjundy Tliursday," he was devoutly affected, 
and makes the following record of the occasion : " Thou- 
sands of Christians perform their vows, and offer their tears 



528 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

here yearly, with all the expressions of sorrow, humility 
affection, and penitence. It is a frozen zeal that will not 
be warmed with the. sight thereof. And, oh, that I could 
retain the effects that it wrought, with an unfainting 
perseverance ! who then did dedicate this hymn to my 
Redeemer : 

" Saviour of mankind, Man, Emanuel ! 
Who sinless died for sin, who vanquished hell ; 
The first-fruits of the gi'ave ; whose life did give 
Light to our darkness ; in whose death we live ; — 
Oh ! sti'engthen thou my faith ; correct my will, 
That mine may thine obey; jirotect me still, 
So that the latter death may not devour 
My soul sealed with thy seal. So, in the hour 
When thou, whose body sanctified this tomb, 
Unjustly judged, a glorious Judge shalt come 
To judge the world with justice, by that sign 
I may be known, and entertained for thine." 



SANTOLIUS MAGLORIANUS. 

1628-1684. 

Claude de Sat^teul, or Santeuil (better known as San- 
tolius Maglorianus), was of an ancient Parisian family, 
and was born at Paris, February 3, 1628. He derived his 
surname from his long abode, as a secular ecclesiastic, in 
the Seminary of St. Magloire. Such was his humility, that 
he could not be persuaded to aspire to the priesthood. The 
Archbishop of Paris having determined, in concert with 
the chapter of his church, to reform the Paris Breviary, 
Claude de Santeul was charged with the work of compos- 
ing the new hymns. He prevailed, however, on his younger 
brother, Jean Baptiste, to undertake the principal part of 
the work. His own contributions were considerable and 
admirable. He composed, also, several other hymns, for 



SANTOLIUS VICTOEINUS. 529 

particular offices, tliat met with universal apx^robation. 
More than 300 of his hymns were left in MS., at his death, 
which occurred, at Paris, September 29, 1684. 

Such was his reputation for extensive and accurate 
scholarship, that he was frequently consulted by the Bene- 
dictine Fathers, as to the various readings of the text, 
when they were publishing the works of Augustine. In 
erudition, and even in poetic talent, he was not inferior to 
his more celebrated brother. But he was more retiring, 
mild, and gentle. His candor, simplicity, and humility, 
were remarkable. 



SANTOLIUS YICTORESTUS. 

1630-1697. 

Jeai^- Baptists de Santeul, the brother of Claude, was 
born at Paris, May 12, 1630. He studied, at first, in the 
College of St. Barbe, and then with Father Cossart, a 
Jesuit. He entered among the regular canons of St. Victor 
(whence his surname), where he acquired the reputation of 
being an excellent poet. Thenceforth he devoted his life 
to the cultivation of the art, and became everywhere known 
as " the prince of French hymnographers." In connection 
with his elder brother, he composed the new hymns of the 
Paris Breviary. He performed the same service for the 
Clugny Breviary. Ardent, impassioned, and full of the 
poetic fire, he was ever at work, writing poems, or inscrip- 
tions for the public monuments of Paris, or sonnets for 
friends. 

He was honored and cherished by all the learned men of 
his day, and was admired by the two Princes de Conde, 
father and son, and by Louis XIV., who conferred on him 
a pension. He died at Dijon, August 5, 1697, and his re- 
mains were brought to Paris, and interred with gi-eat honor, 
in the Abbey of St. Victor. His hymns were published in 
34 



630 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

1698, and were universally admired by the French savants. 
They were incorporated into the Breviary of Orleans, in 
1693 ; of Lisieux, in 1704 ; of Narbonne, in 1709 ; and of 
Meaux, in 1713. Bourdaloue urged their incorporation into 
the Roman Breviary. 



JOHANN SCHEFFLER. 

162^1677. 

ScHEFFLER is better known as " Angelus Silesius." He 
was born, in 1624, of Lutheran parents, at Breslau, in Si- 
lesia, and, having become enamored of the writings and 
tenets of the mystics, more particularly those of a Span- 
iard, named John ab Angelis, the author of a poem on 
"The Triumph of Love," he took the name of "Angelus." 
Early in life he became a disciple of Jacob Boehnie, the 
famous shoemaker, whose writings on the " Inner Life " 
were widely diffused throughout Silesia, Germany. De- 
voting himself to the medical profession, he studied awhile 
in the University of Breslau, his native town, and after- 
wards, having obtained the degree of M.D., he studied at 
Strasburg. He visited, also, the Universities of Holland, 
and made many acquaintances among the pious of different 
persuasions, and more i^articularly, of a society at Amster- 
dam, that had adopted the tenets of Boehme. 

On his return to Silesia, in 1649, he received the appoint- 
ment of private physician to Sylvius Nimrod, the Duke of 
Wurtemberg-Oels. Here his most intimate friend was 
Abraham von Prankenberg, a disciple and biographer of 
Boehme, who made him acquainted with the writings of 
Tauler, Ruysbroeck, Schwenkfeld, and other mystics. His 
friend, at death, bequeathed these, and a large number of 
similar works, to Scheffler. The Lutheran clergy regarded 
Scheffler as a heretic, and, by their contentions, so disgusted 
him, that he sought refuge (1653) in the Roman Catholic 



JOHANN SCHEFFLER. 531 

Clinrcli — drawn thither, probably, by his admiration of 
Taiiler, Thomas a Kempis, and others of like spirit in that 
connection. The most of his hymns — and he wrote many 
— ^were composed prior to this event. 

He now became the private physician of the Emperor, 
Ferdinand III. , and obtained special privileges for the pro- 
scribed Romanists. He carried on a fierce controversy with 
Herr Freitag, the court preacher at Oels. Ere long, he 
abandoned his profession entirely, entered the Roman 
Catholic priesthood, and returned to Breslau, as early as 
1662. In the meantime, he had published (1657) his 
" Sacred Joys of the Soul, or the Enamored Psyche," in 
which form his hymns were first issued. Others appeared 
soon after in "The Mourning Psyche." In 1674, he pub- 
lished a collection of spiritual aphorisms, under the title of 
" The Cherubinical Wanderer," — many of them, " pearls of 
wisdom, lustrous with a wealth of meaning"; but others 
tinctured with a species of " mystical pantheism. " 

In his later years, he found a retreat in the Jesuit Mon- 
astery of St. Matthias, Breslau, where he died, July 9, 1677. 
Very few of his hymns are found in Roman Catholic hjTiin- 
books, but they abound in the books of the Evangelical 
Lutherans. By far the larger part of them are to be reck- 
oned among the most precious treasures of sacred poetry. 
The pietists of Halle greatly admired them, and, through 
the influence of Freylinghausen, introduced them into their 
hymn-books. The following are from his aphorisms : 

" My God ! how oft do I thy gifts implore, 
Yet know I crave thyself ! — Oh ! how much more I 
Give what thou wilt, eternal life, or aught, 
If thou withhold thyself, thou giv'st me naught." 

*' The nobler aught, the commoner 't will be, — 
God and his sunshine to the world are free." 

" The rose demands no reasons; she blooms and scents the air, 
Nor asks if any see her, nor knows that she is fait." 



532 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

BENJAMIN SCHMOLKE. 
1672-1737. 

Benjamin Schmolke was a native of Silesia, the home 
also of Jolm Scheffler. His father was the pastor of the 
church at Brauchitchdorf, where the son, Benjamin, was 
bom, December 21, 1672. The child was devoted, from his 
birth, to the work of the ministry. Kind friends enabled 
the impoverished pastor to send the boy to the University 
of Leipsic. On one occasion, being on a visit home, Benja- 
min preached in his father's church, on the words : "I am 
poor and needy ; yet the Lord think eth upon me ; thou 
art my help and my deliverer ; make no tarrying, O my 
God ! " One of the hearers was so affected by the dis- 
course, as to contribute a considerable sum towards his 
University expenses. 

His poetic talent was early developed, and was made re- 
munerative. His other publications, also, brought him 
considerable reputation. His pulpit talents were no less 
remarkable. In 1694, he became curate to his aged father, 
and commended himself greatly to the hearts of his towns- 
men. Having received an appointment to a charge in 
Schweidnitz (1702), he was married, and entered upon his 
new charge with so much wisdom and zeal, as to circum- 
vent the Jesuits, and Avin the hearts of his people. A vol- 
ume of fifty of his hymns was published in 1704. Ten 
years after (1714), he was made Pastor Primarius of the 
town, including the office of Church and School Inspector. 

In his later years, he was subjected to the discipline of 
severe affliction, giving a plaintive expression to the hymns 
then composed. Half the town was destroyed by a dread- 
ful conflagration, September 12, 1716 ; and about the same 
time, his father and two of his own children were removed 
by death. He poured out his grief in several volumes of 
hymns, which followed each other in rapid succession, until 
the hymns numbered at least a thousand. In 1730, a par- 



ELIZABETH SCOTT. 533 

alytic stroke affected his right side, but he kept at work 
five years longer. Two more attacks deprived him of his 
sight, and compelled him to cease from preaching. During 
these last years of trial, his hymns reached the number of 
1,188. His release from toil and pain occurred February 
12, 1737. 

Schmolke was the author of the hymn, 

"MeinJesu! wie du willst ! " etc. 

["My Jesus! as thou wilt!"— Tr., Miss J. BORTBTWlCK.] 

which has become a great favorite with the devout, espe- 
cially in time of deep affliction. 



ELIZABETH SCOTT. 

1708-1776. 

Elizabeth Scott was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas 
Scott, of Norwich, England, and was born there, probably 
in 1708. Her father was the pastor of a Dissenting church, 
and died in 1740. One of her brothers was the Rev. Thomas 
Scott, of Ipswich. [See next Sketch.] 

In the Correspondence of Dr. Doddridge is found a letter 
dated June 25, 1745, addressed to the daughter of the Rev. 
Thomas Scott, of Norwich (undoubtedly Elizabeth), in 
which it appears that she had repeatedly and unreservedly, 
in conversation, as well as by letter, opened her mind to 
Dr. Doddridge, and sought his spiritual advice. " I most 
faithfully assure you," says Doddridge, " that the more I 
know you, the more firmly am I convinced, not only that 
you are a real^ but that you are a "oery advanced Christian." 

Having " refused the hand of Dr. Doddridge," without 
the loss, however, of his friendship, she married, January 
27, 1751, Colonel Elislia Williams, of Wethersfield, Conn. 
The sketch of Elisha Williams in " The Genealogy and His- 
tory of the Family of Williams " contains the following : 
" On account of the non-payment of the troops, he was so 



534 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

licited to go to England, and sailed December, 1749. While 
there, his wife died, and before his return, he married Miss 
Elizabeth Scott, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Scott, of 
Norwich, England, a lady of distinguished piety and ac- 
complishments. He left England in 1751, narrowly escaped 
shipwreck, and after spending some months in Antigua, 
arrived home in Aj)ril, 1752. He died [at Wethersfield] 
July 24, 1755, in the sixty-first year of his age, of cancer." 
Colonel Williams was the president of Yale College from 
1726 to 1739. 

Six years after Colonel Williams' death, she married 
(1761) Hon. William Smith, of New York. Mr. Smith died 
in 1769. She then returned to Wethersfield, where she 
" lived with relatives of her first husband " until her death, 
June 13, 1776. 

A dedication of her MS. poems to her father is given in 
Dr. Dodd's Christian Magazine for December, 1763. Most 
of her hymns, Avhich were commenced at her father's sug- 
gestion, were probably composed during his lifetime, but 
were not published until many years after his death. Sev- 
eral of them appeared in the Christian Magazine for 
1763-64 ; and twenty-one in Ash and Evans' Collection 
(1769), eight of which and twelve others are to be found in 
Dobell's Selection (1806). The MS. of all her hymns and 
poems is in the Library of Yale College. 

Her "Morning Hymn," on Psalm iii. 5, is among her 
best productions. It is found in Dobell's Selection : 

" See how the rising sun 

Pursues his shining way, 
And wide proclaims his Maker's pi-aise, 
With every brightening ray I 

" Thus would my rising soul 
Its heavenly parent sing, 
And to its great Original 
The humble tribute bring. 

" Serene I laid me down 

Beneath his guardian care ; 
I slept, and I awoke, and found 
My kind Preserver near. 



THOMAS SCOTT. 635 

' Thus does thine arm support 
This weak, defenceless frame ; 
But whence these favors, Lord ! to me, 
So worthless as I am ? 

* Oh ! how shall I repay 
The bounties of my God ? 
This feeble spirit pants beneath 
The pleasing pamful load. 

" Dear Saviour ! to thy cross 
I bring my sacrifice ; 
Tinged with thy blood, it shall ascend 
With fragrance to the skies. 

' ' My life I would anew 

Devote, O Lord ! to thee ; 
And in thy presence I would spend 
A long eternity." 



THOMAS SCOTT. 

1776. 

The Rev. Thomas Scott was the son of Rev. Thomas 
Scott, a Dissenting clergyman of Norwich, England, and 
the nephew of " the learned, ingenious, and accurate " Rev. 
Daniel Scott, a Baptist divine, educated at Utrecht, Hol- 
land, and settled at Colchester, England. The father and 
the uncle were both Arians. The father died in 1740, and 
the uncle in 1759. Doddridge held them in high esteem. 
Thomas was born at Norwich, and was carefully trained 
by his father for his own profession. Having obtained 
the usual authority to preach, he took charge of a board- 
ing-school at Wartmell, Norfolk shire, and preached, once 
a month, at Harleston, in the vicinity. His first settlement, 
as a pastor, was at Lowestoft, Suffolkshire (1733-1737). 



636 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

He then became tlie colleague (1737) of the Kev. Mr. Bax- 
ter, of Ipswich, by whose death (1740) the full pastoral 
charge devolved on him. He continued in this position 
twenty-one years as sole pastor, and thirteen more (1761- 
1774) with a colleague. About two years before his death, 
which occurred in 1776, he retired from his pastorate. 

Like his father, Mr. Scott was an Arian, and a diligent 
student. His first- publication was an excellent poem, enti- 
tled,— "A Father's Instructions to his Son " (1748). His next 
was also a poem, of sound practical morality, called, — " The 
Table of Cebes ; or The Picture of Human Life ; in English 
Verse, with Notes" (1754). A learned and valuable quarto 
work appeared from his hand in 1771,—" The Book of Job, 
in English Verse ; Translated from the Original Hebrew ; 
with Kemarks, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory." An 
octavo edition was issued in 1773. His "Lyric Poems 
and Hymns, Devotional and Moral," came forth the same 
year. He contributed (1772) twelve hymns to the Warring- 
ton Collection, compiled by the Rev. Dr. William Enfield. 
The following lines are from the 104th of his "Lyric 
Poems": 

" Eternal Gospel ! my unerring guide, 

The worldling's hatred and the scorn of pride, 

No visionary's dream, nor fabling wile. 

Frenzy's illusion, or imposture's guile, — 

Mean were thy heralds, hut their mission sure, 

The doctrines humbling, and the moral pure, 

Benevolence sublime ; stupendous scheme, 

God to exalt, and a lost world redeem. 

In vain the mighty stormed, the learned strove, 

The truth is strong, it issued from above ; 

Scoffs, chains, and death in all the shapes of fear, 

Menaced in vain ; resistless its career ; 

By wonder-working powers, and native charms, 

Its sole enticement, and its only arms. 

From land to land its rapid conquests spread, 

And joy and beauty on the nations shed. 
Oh ! when shall this divine religion run 

In its full glory with the circlmg sun ? 

Come, long-foretold, long- wished, triumphing day I 

Fly, intervening ages ! fly away." 



WALTER SCOTT. 537 

WALTER SCOTT. 
1771-1832. 

Walter Scott was a lineal descendant of the Walter 
Scott whom tradition has celebrated as " Anld Walt," of 
Harden, whose name he himself has " made to ring in many 
a ditty," and of " The Flower of Yarrow," his fair dame. 
His great-grandfather, who was also a Walter, was known 
throughout Teviotdale, as "Beardie." His father, Walter, 
of Edinburgh, was Writer to the Signet ; and his mother, 
Anne, herself a poet, was the daughter of Dr. John Ruth- 
erford, Medical Professor in the University of Edinburgh. 
He was born, a younger son, in Edinburgh, August 15, 
1771. 

In his second year, he was afflicted with a lameness from 
which he never entirely recovered. He was thus unfitted 
for the turmoil of busy outdoor life, and was bred to letters 
and the law. His precocity was remarkable. Mrs. Cock- 
burn, a relative of his mother, said of him, when he was 
but little more than seven years old : " He has the most 
extraordinary genius of a boy I ever saw. " Having received 
the rudiments of education at a private academy in the 
town, he was sent, in 1779, to the High School of Edinburgh, 
under the tuition of Dr. Adams, where he became better 
known as a teller of tales than as a scholar. His imagina- 
tion had been unduly cultivated from his infancy, and he 
delighted in tales, and ballads, and romances, of the most 
exciting character. He " left the High School, therefore," 
to use his own words, " with a great quantity of general 
information, — ill-arranged . . . and gilded by a vivid and 
active imagination. " 

But for his lameness he would now have given himself 
to the army, for which he had quite a passion. In Octo- 
ber, 1783, he entered the University of Edinburgh, and came 
under the instruction of Prof. Stewart. Three years later, 
he commenced the study of law under Prof. Dick. But 



538 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Percy's "Reliques of Ancient Poetry," of which he had 
gained possession, on his entrance to the University, had 
vastly more charms for him than the learned tomes of the 
law-library. In May, 1786, he was apprenticed to his own 
father, as a Writer to the Signet. About the same time he 
was taken with a severe hemorrhage, and reduced to the 
very gates of death. His recovery was tedious, and during 
his convalescence of two years, being left to his own will, 
he devoured, with surprising avidity, the novels and ro- 
mances of a circulating library to which he had gained 
access. In April, 1788, he joined a class of six or seven 
friends in the study of German under Dr. Willich, and 
thus was introduced to numerous other works of the im- 
agination. 

In July, 1792, he was admitted to the bar, and, for some 
years, he practised law in his native town. A visit of Miss 
Anna L^etitia Aikin to Edinburgh, in the summer of 1794, 
was the occasion, as he relates in his " Essay on Imitations 
of the Ancient Ballad," of maldng him acquainted with 
Burger's Lenore, a German ballad ; and such was the fas- 
cination of the work, that he rendered it into English bal- 
lad verse in a single night. Shortly after, he made a simi- 
lar translation of Burger's " Der Wilde Jager " (" The Wild 
Huntsman "). This was in 1795. He was induced to print 
these first effusions of his muse ; and, in 1796, appeared his 
first publication, entitled, — ■" The Chace, and William and 
Helen ; Two Ballads, from the German of Gottfried Augus- 
tus Burger." As a pecuniary speculation, and as a bid for 
fame, the venture was an entire failure. It " proved a dead 
loss, and a great part of the edition was condemned to the 
service of the trunk-maker. " " The very existence of them 
was soon forgotten." Such is his own statement. 

The next year (1797) he became the husband of Miss 
Charlotte Margaret Carpenter, the orphan daughter of 
Jean Charpentier, a royalist of Lyons, France. She was a 
lady of great attractions and excellency. Not discouraged 
by the fate of his first literary venture, he continued his 
German studies, and translated several di'amas into English 



WALTER SCOTT. 539 

verse. In 1799, lie publislied "Goetz of Berlicliingen, with 
the Iron Hand ; a Tragedy, translated from the German." 
At length he ventured on the production of something 
original, of which the ballads of " Glenfinlas," " The Eve 
of St. John," " The Fire King," and " Frederick and Alice," 
were the first fruits, and were contributed to Lewis' " Tales 
of Wonder" in 1801. "My efforts," he says, "to present 
myself before the public as an original writer proved as 
vain, as those by which I had previously endeavored to 
distinguish myself as a translator." 

Almost any other man would now have abandoned the 
line of authorship, and devoted himself to his professional 
work. But Scott, who had fully recovered his health and 
acquired great robustness of body, was not to be put back. 
In 1800, he obtained the preferment of Sheriff of Selkirk- 
shire, yielding him £300 a year, and removed to Ashestiel, 
on the banks of the Tweed. His father had died, and left 
him a small patrimony, so that, with the addition of his 
wife's annuity, he was provided with a comfortable income. 
His leisure was now given to the production of the " Min- 
strelsy of the Scottish Border," in two volumes (published 
in 1802), which was received with favor, and gave him con- 
siderable fame. A thu-d volume appeared in 1803, followed, 
in 1805, by "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," his first great 
success. He was now ranked among the first poets of the 
age, and his position as a writer of extraordinary ability 
secured. 

On the retirement of Mr. Home (1806) from the ofiice of 
a principal clerkship in the Court of Sessions, Scott was 
appointed his sviccessor, with a salary of £800, which was 
increased, at Mr. Home's death, to £1,300 a year. He was 
thus relieved from the necessity of practising law, and gave 
himself up mostly to literary pursuits. " Marmion," pub- 
lished in 1808, brought him £1,000. "The Lady of the 
Lake" was given to the public in June, 1810. Both of 
these poems brought him the most flattering commenda- 
tions. They were received with universal ai)plause. " The 
Vision of Don Roderick " followed, June, 1811. 



540 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

He now removed some six or seven miles down tlie Tweed, 
iind established himself on a farm of a liiindi^ed acres, to 
which he gave the name of " Abbotsf ord. " Here, in the 
closing months of 1812, he wrote "Rokeby" (published, 
January, 1813). Byron had just electrified the literary 
world with the first part of his "Childe Harold," and 
" Rokeby " came short of its predecessor, though well re- 
ceived. "The Lord of the Isles" (January, 1815), "The 
Bridal of Triermain," "The Field of Waterloo" (1815), 
and " Harold, the Dauntless " (December, 1816), completed 
his principal poetic productions. 

Scott had, in 1805, written a few chapters of " Waver- 
ley," and laid them aside. In 1814 he resumed the work and 
published it anonymously, in July of that year. This was 
the beginning of that popular series of twenty-seven 
works, called "The Waverley Novels," numbering about 
seventy volumes, which occupied him mainly during the 
lemainder of his life, and by which he acquired both fame 
and wealth. In 1820, a baronetcy was conferred on him by 
George lY., and he took his place among the landed aris- 
tocracy of the Border. By constant accretions, Abbotsf ord 
became a vast domain — the humble cottage growing into a 
baronial manor, in which he delighted to exercise a lordly 
hospitality. 

By the failure of his publishers, A. Constable & Co. and 
Ballantyne & Co., of Edinburgh, in January, 1826, Sir Wal- 
ter became a bankrupt, his losses amounting to £150,000. 
He had been a secret partner with the Ballantynes for many 
years. Giving uj) his town house and everything but Ab- 
botsford to his creditors, by a series of herculean labors 
he produced volume after volume, including " The Life of 
Napoleon Bonaparte," in rapid succession, and was suc- 
ceeding nobly in reducing the amount of his indebtedness, 
when he was obliged, by physical exhaustion, to abandon the 
pursuit, and cease from intellectual toil. Leaving home in 
September, 1831, he visited the south of Europe, but too late 
to arrest the progress of disease. In July, 1832, he reached 
Abbotsford, and sunk daily more and more, until his death. 



WALTER SCOTT. 541 

September 21, 1832. Lady Scott survived his bankruptcy 
but a few months, dying, May 15, 1826. He had paid 
£100,000 of his debts, and the remainder was, not long 
after, cancelled by the proceeds of his copyrights in the 
" Waverley Novels." He left two sons and two daughters, 
the elder of tha latter, Sophia, married to J. G. Lockhart, 
his biographer. They all died childless, with the exception 
of Mrs. Lockliart. Her two sons died young, and her only 
daughter was married in 1847 to James Robert Hope, who, 
by virtue of an Act of Parliament, assumed the name of 
Scott. Their daughter, Mary Morrice Hope Scott, born in 
1852, now owns " Abbotsford," and is the sole surviving 
descendant of Sir Walter Scott, — his great-granddaughter. 
It must ever be a matter of regret that one who was so 
gifted as a poet, and wi^ote so much exquisite verse, should 
have written so little in the line of sacred lyrics. Besides 
the version of a brief portion of Celano's " Dies Irse " (found 
in " The Lay of the Last Minstrel "), and the hymn here 
subjoined, it is not kno^vn that he has contributed anj^hing 
to the stores of hymnology : 

" When Israel, of the Lord beloved. 

Out of the land of bondage came ; 
Her father's God before her moved, 

An awful guide in smoke and flame : 
By day, along th' astonished lands, 

The cloudy pOlar glided slow ; 
By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands 

Returned the fiery column's glow. 

" There I'ose the choral hymn of praise, 

And trump and timbrel answered keen ; 
And Zion's daughters poured their lays, 

With priest's and warrior's voice between: 
No portents now our foes amaze, 

Foreaken Israel wanders lone ; 
Our fathers would not know thy ways, 

And thou hast left them to their own. 

" But present still, though now unseen, 

When brightly shines the prosperous day ; 



542 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Be thouglits of tliee a cloudy screen 
To temper the deceitful ray : 

And, Oh ! when stoops on Judah's path, 
In shade and storm, tlie frequent night, 

Be thou long-suffermg, slow to wrath, 
A burning and a shining light. 

*' Our harps we left by Babel's streams. 

The tyrant's pest, the Gentile's scorn ; 3 
No censer round our altar beams. 

And mute are timbrel, trump and horn: 
But thou hast said, — ' The blood of goat, 

The flesh of rams, I will not prize ; 
A contrite heart, a humble thought, 

Are mine accepted sacrifice.' " 



EGBERT SEAGRAVE. 

1693 

The Rev. Robert Seagrave was the son of the Rev. 
Robert Seagrave, who was the Vicar (1687-1720) of Twy- 
ford, Leicestershire, England. He was born at the vicar- 
age, November 22, 1693, and educated by his father for the 
ministry. He entered Clare Hall, Cambridge, November 8^ 
1710, and graduated, A.B., 1714, and A.M., 1718. He took 
orders in 1715, but the particulars of his early ministry are 
not known. Being thoroughly orthodox, he was greatly 
tried with the laxity of morals among the clergy. In 1731, 
he issued, anonymously, "A Remonstrance addressed to 
the Clergy, showing where the Charm of Deism (without 
returning to the Old Divinity) will necessarily terminate. 
By a Friend of the Clergy." It is a pamphlet of seventy- 
eight pages, and defends supernaturalism against the ra- 
tionalism of the period. This was probably his first publi- 
cation. 

In 1736, he issued " A Letter to the People of England, 
occasioned by the Falling Away of the Clergy from the 



EGBERT SEAGRAVE. 543 

Doctrines of the Reformation. By Paulinns." A Sermon, 
on Gal. iii. 24, folloAvecl (1737), in defence of his " Letter," 
and bearing the title,—" A Draught of the Justification of 
Man, different from the present Language of our Pulpits. 
By Robert Seagrave, A.M., Author of the Letter to the 
People of England." He pursued the subject (1737) in 
"Six Sermons upon the Manner of Salvation, being the 
Substance of Christianity, as preached at the Time of the 
Reformation." The next year (1738), he published "Ob- 
servations upon the Conduct of the Clergy in Relation to 
the Thirty-Nine Articles. Wherein is showed, That the 
Church of England, properly so called, is not now existing. 
With an Essay towards a real Protestant Establishment," 
pp. 67. 

He had now withdrawn from the Established Church. 
In 1739, he became Evening Lecturer at Lorimer's [Leather- 
Cutter's, or Saddler's] Hall, Crip]Dlegate, near Moorfields. 
He lectured here, also, weeldy, on Tuesday and Thurs- 
day evenings. The same year, he published "An An- 
swer to The Reverend Dr. Trapp's four Sermons against 
Mr. Whitefield. Shewing The Sin and Folly of being An- 
gry overmuch. With a View to explain the Present Con- 
troversy, and Point out the True Ground of his being dis- 
agreeable to the Clergy." To this succeeded, also in 1739, 
" Remarks upon the Bishop of London's Pastoral Letter, 
in Vindication of Mr. Whitefield and his particular Doc- 
trines." The following year (1740), he came again, anon- 
ymously, to the defence of the Great Revivalist, in " The 
Case, between Mr. Whitefield and Dr. Stebbing, stated: 
wherein The Necessity, Nature, Manner, and Effects of 
Regeneration Are very Largely considered, and the Whole 
Scripture Doctrine of the New Birth Explained and De- 
fended." 

Mr. Whitefield was, at this time, in Savannah, whence 
he wrote, June 26, 1740, to Mr. Seagrave : "And is one of 
the priests also obedient to the word ? Blessed be God, the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath translated you 
from darkness to light, — from the power of Satan to the 



544 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

service of the ever-living God. . , . O dear Sir, rejoice and 
be exceeding glad ; and let the love of Jesus constrain you 
to go out into the highways and hedges to compel poor 
sinners to come in. . . . Go on, dear Sir, go on, and follow 
your glorious Master, without the camp, bearing his sacred 
reproach. . . . O dear Sir ! though I know you not, yet my 
heart is enlarged towards you," etc. On his return to Eng- 
land, in March, 1741, he made the acquaintance of Mr. Sea- 
grave, and gladly welcomed him among his co-laborers. 
The erection of the Tabernacle, Moorfields, soon followed, 
and Seagrave became one of its regular preachers. 

In 1742, he published " Hymns for Christian Worship, 
partly Composed and partly Collected from Various Au- 
thors": 50 hymns, pp. 82. A 2d edition appeared the same 
year; a 3d, in 1744, and a 4th, in 1748, each of them enlarged. 
The hymns are of a high order. The next year (1743), he 
published " Christianity : how far it is, and is not, founded 
on Argument." It was about this time, that his ministry 
was blessed to John Griffith (1714-1798), who, in 1749, 
joined the Tabernacle Society, and, in 1754, became the 
pastor of the Red Cross Street Congregation, London. His 
next issue from the press was " The True Protestant : a Dis- 
sertation, showing the Necessity of asserting the Princi- 
ples of Liberty in their full Extent." In 1753, he was the 
preacher at the Bull-and-Mouth [Boulogne-Mouth] Street 
Chapel. In 1755, he came again before the public, in his 
latest publication, entitled, — " The Principle of Liberty ; 
or The Right of Mankind to judge for themselves in Mat- 
ters of Faith without positive or compulsive Determina- 
tion." 

No further trace of Mr. Seagrave has been found. He 
had closed his engagement at Lorimer's Hall, and probably 
died shortly after the year 1755. His writings and labors 
show him to have been a clear-headed, orthodox, able, and 
godly minister of Jesus Christ. An accurate Reprint of 
his (50) Hymns, with a Biographical Sketch, was included 
(1860) by Mr. Daniel Sedgwick in his " Library of Spiritual 
Songs." 



ROBERT SEAGRAVE. 545 

His hymns are mostly in advance of the times in which 
he lived — quite superior to much of the material of which 
the Compilations of that day were framed. " The Pilgrim's 
Song," beginning 

" Rise, my soul ! and stretch thy wings," 

is one of the most useful and popular hymns in current use. 
The following five stanzas, from a hymn of nine stanzas, to 
be sung " At the Opening of Worship," constitute the fu^st 
hymn in Mr. Whitefield's Collection. They are the 1st, 
2d, 6th, 7th, and 9 th of the original : 

" Now may the Spirit's holy fire 
Descending from above, 
His waiting family inspire 
With joy, and peace, and love. 

* ' Thee we the Comforter confess ; 
Shouldst thou he absent here. 
Our songs of praise are vain address, 
We utter heartless prayer. 

" Wake, heavenly Wind! arise and come, 
Blow on the drooping field ; 
The plants and flowers shall breathe perfume, 
By thee theii* incense yield. 

" Touch, with a living coal, the lip, 
That shall proclaim thy word. 
And bid each awful hearer keep 
Attention to the Lord. 

*' Hasten the restitution-day. 

Which now corruption shrouds. 
New heavens and new earth display, 
With Jesus in the Clouds." 

35 



546 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

EDMUND HAMILTON SEARS. 

1810-1876. 

Mr. Sears was the son of Joseph Sears, of Sandislield, 
Berkshire County, Mass., where he was born, April 6, 1810. 
He was educated at Union College, graduating in 1834. 
He studied for the ministry at the Theological School, 
Cambridge, Mass. (1834-1837). In 1838, he became the 
pastor of the Fii^st Congregational Church (Unitarian) of 
Wayland, Mass. ; and, in 1840, removed to Lancaster, Mass. 
In 1847, the loss of his health compelled him to return to 
his former charge in Wayland. In 1865, he removed to 
Weston (near Concord), and took charge of the Unitarian 
Church of that town. 

Dr. Sears became known as an author in 1854, when his 
treatise on " Regeneration," written at the request of the 
Executive Committee of the American Unitarian Associa- 
tion, was published. His " Pictures of the Olden Time, as 
shown in the Fortunes of a Family of the Pilgrims," ap- 
peared in 1857, and his " Athanasia ; or Foregleams of Im- 
mortality," in 1858. The following year, he became asso- 
ciated with the Rev. Rufus Ellis, in the editorial charge of 
The Monthly Religious Magazine, published at Boston, 
for which, during the next twelve years (1859-1871), he 
wrote numerous articles, both in poetry and prose. The 
honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on him, in 1871, by 
Union College. The next year (1872), he published " The 
Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ "; and, in 1875, a volume 
of " Sermons and Songs." He died in 1876. 

His Christmas Hymn, beginning 

" Calm on the listening ear of night," 

has been pronounced by Oliver Wendell Holmes " one of 
the finest and most beautiful hymns ever written." The 
original contains five double stanzas. 



AARON CROSSLEY HOBART SEYMOUR. 647 

and character is liis second Christmas Hymn, beginning 
with 

" It came upon the midnight clear." 

The following sweet hymn, on " Feed my Lambs," was con- 
tributed (1864) to "Hynms of the Spirit": 

" Ho ! ye that rest beneath the rock, 

On pastures gently growing, 
Or roam at will, a favored flock, 

By waters gently flowing ! 
Hear ye, upon the desert air, 

A voice of woe come crying. 
Where, cold upon the barren moor, 

God's little lambs are dying. 

" See the great Shepherd bend and call 

From fields of light and glory, — 
* Go, feed my lambs, and bring them all 
From moor and mountain hoary ! ' 
Ye favored flock ! the call obey. 

And, from the desert dreary. 
Lead those who faint along the way, 
Or wander, lost and weary." 



AARON CROSSLEY HOBART SEYMOUR. 

1789 . 

Mr. Seymour is chiefly known as the compiler and edi- 
tor of " The Lite and Times of Selina, Countess of Hunting- 
don," a work of great labor and research, which, after thirty 
years of careful preparation, was published (1839) in two 
volumes, at London. His father, the Rev. John Crossley 
Seymour, Vicar of Cahirelly, Diocese of Casliel, Ireland, 
was a lineal descendant of Sir Henry Seymour, tlie brother 
of Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry YIII. His mother 
was the eldest daughter of the Rev. Edward Wight, Rec- 



548 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tor of Meelick, Limerick, Ireland. His younger brother, 
the Kev. Michael Hobart Seymour, is the well-known au- 
thor of " Mornings among the Jesuits at Rome," " Evenings 
with the Romanists," and several similar works. 

Mr. Seymour was born in the county of Limerick, Ire- 
land, December 19, 1789, and was liberally educated, with 
religious inclinations from his early youth. At the age of 
twenty, he was seriously disabled by a hemorrhage of the 
lungs, that for a considerable time prevented all physical 
exertion. His leisure was devoted to the composition of 
" Vital Christianity, exhibited in a Series of Letters on the 
most Important Subjects of Religion, addressed to Young 
Persons," published in 1810. It contained several hymns, 
and other poems. The next year (1811) he published " Me- 
moirs of the Rev. George Whitefield," based on Dr. Gil- 
lies' Life of Whitefield, with numerous additional sketches. 
In 1816, he published " Memoirs of Miss Charlotte Brooke," 
prefixed to her "Reliques of Ancient Irish Poetry." 

He entered upon the work of compiling " The Life and 
Times of Selina, the Countess of Huntingdon," at the sug- 
gestion of the late Rev. Dr. Haweis, and with the sanction 
of the Countess of Moira, the only surviving daughter of 
Lady Huntingdon. A vast amount of information is 
brought together, from all accessible sources, illustrative 
of the " Life and Times " of the Countess. But as a " Life " 
of the Countess, the work is far from satisfactory. The 
reader is confused and perplexed in pursuing his way 
through the numerous retrogressions and digressions of 
the " Times," and finds it difiicult to determine his bear- 
ings. The deficiency in well-defined dates is most notice- 
able. The book is a great storehouse of ill-arranged facts, 
awaiting the hand of a skillful compiler. Some of his state- 
ments have been criticised for inaccuracy. 

Mr. SejTnour was, for many years, a constant contributor 
to The Evangelical Magazine, The Congregational Maga- 
zine, The Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, The Christian 
Guardian, The Youth'' s Magazine, Bentley^s Miscellany, 
and some other publications. 



MARY STANLEY BUNCE SHINDLER. 549 

He also took a great interest in hymnology, especially 
in connection with the psalmody of Lady Huntingdon's 
Chapels. In early life, he wrote frequently in verse. The 
hymn beginning 

" Jesus, immortal King! arise," 

is from his " Vital Christianity " (1810). The hymn begin- 
ning with 

"Awake, all-conquering Arm. ! awake," 

ascribed to him by Miller and others, was written by Dod- 
dridge, and is a part of the 121st of his hymns, as pub- 
lished by Orton, in 1755. 

It is an interesting fact, that in early life, with the help 
of a brother and one other Christian friend, he established 
a prayer-meeting among the students of the University of 
Dublin, to the number of forty, nearly all of whom be- 
came useful ministers of the Established Church. For 
many years, from 1850, Mr. Seymour lived in Naples for 
the benefit of his impaired health ; then he removed to 
England, and resided in Bristol. 



MARY STANLEY BUNCE SHINDLER. 

1810 . 

Mrs. Shustdler is better known as Mrs. Dana. She is 
the daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer, D.D., 
and Mary Stanley Bunce. At the time of her birth, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1810, her father was the Pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Church at Beaufort, S. C. Four years afterwards 
(1814), he removed to Charleston, S. C, and became the 
Pastor of the Circular Church of that city. 

She was educated, in the best manner, at the school of the 
Misses Ramsay, Charleston, and at distinguished schools 
in Wethersfield, Conn., Elizabethtown, N. J., and New 



550 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Haven, Conn. She was married, December 19, 1835, to Mr. 
Charles E. Dana, of New York. Her husband was taken 
from her by death, in 1839, at their western home, whither 
they had removed the year previous. The story of her 
sorrows she has touchingly portrayed in the Introduction 
to her "Southern Harp": 

" There was a time when all to me was light; 
No shadows stole across my pathway bright. 
I had a darling sister, — but she died ! 
For many years we wandered side by side, 
And oft these very songs she sung with me ; 
No wonder, then, if they should plaintive be ! 
I had an only brother, — and he died — 
Away from home, and from his lovely bride ; 
And, not long after, those I loved too well, 
Pale — cold — and still — in death's embraces fell ; 
In two short days on me no more they smiled, 
My noble husband, and my only child ! " 

Returning to the home of her youth, she devoted herself 
to literature. She wi'ote for T7ie Rosebud^ a periodical 
conducted by her friend, Mrs. Caroline Gilman. In 1841, 
she published " The Southern Harp ; consisting of Original 
Sacred and Moral Songs, adapted to the Most Popular 
Melodies, for the Piano-Forte and Guitar"; and, at the 
close of the same year, " The Northern Harp," etc. The two 
volumes obtained a very large patronage. These were fol- 
lowed (1842) by the " Parted Family and other Poems ; An 
Offering to the Afflicted, and a Tribute of Love to Departed 
Friends"; and "The Temperance Lyre." " Charles Morton ; 
or The Young Patriot," came from the press in 1843, fol- 
lowed, in 1845, by " The Young Sailor," and " Forecastle 
Tom." 

In the meantime, Mrs. Dana had become a Unitarian, 
greatly to the grief of her parents and friends. In 1845, 
she, therefore, issued a volume of " Letters Addressed to 
Relatives and Friends, chiefly in Reply to Arguments in 
Support of the Doctrine of the Trinity." In October, 1847, 
she began to publish, in The Union Magazine^ a series 



MARY STANLEY BUNCE SHINDLER. 551 

of entertaining "Southern Sketches." Shortly after, she 
returned to the faith of her parents, and, in May, 1848, 
was married to the Rev. Robert D. Shindler, an Episcopal 
clergyman, then officiating in St. Matthew's Parish, S. C. 
In 1851, Mr. Shindler became a Professor in Shelby Col- 
lege, Ky. Several years later, he was settled (ab. 1860) at 
Ripley, Tenn. ; then they removed to San Augustine, Texas, 
and afterwards Mr. Shindler became the Rector of Christ 
Church, Nacagdoches, Texas. Since her second marriage, 
she appears to have withdrawn very much from public 
notice. 

The following beautiful song is from her '-Southern 
Harp": 

" Blessed Sabbath! bow I love thee, 
Sacred pledge of coming rest ! 
Sweetest solace, may I prove thee, 
For a heart with woes oppressed ! 
Surging billows, rolling o'er me, 

Seek to whelm my trembling soul ; 
But thy tokens pass before me, 
And the waters backward roll. 

** Pealing anthems, loud resounding, 

Seem like blissful songs above ; 
In thy temple, joys aboimding 

Bathe my soul in seas of love : 
Prayerful odors, upward stealing 

From the altars of the heart, 
Heavenly glories there revealing, 

Call my spirit to depart. 

" Faith's bright visions thus unfolding, 

Here would I my sorrows bring, 
Till my raptured soul, beholding. 

Soars aloft on steady wing : 
Then, forgetting all my sadness, 

Gloom and doubt will pass away ; 
Drooping sorrow change to gladness, 

Cheerless night to glorious day." 



5^2 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

SELINA SHIRLEY, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. 
1707-1791. 

A conspicuous place in the Annals of the Church is tc 
be accorded to the Lady Selina Shirley, the Countess of 
Huntingdon. A sincere and devout Christian, moving, in 
every period of her life, among the highest classes of Brit- 
ish society, with all the comforts and luxuries that large 
wealth and lofty station could command, her greatest glory 
was in the Cross of Christ, and her greatest delight was to 
extend the kingdom of the Redeemer. Few women, in any 
age, have accomplished as much for the Gosi^el of Christ. 

She was the second of the three daughters of Washing- 
ton Shirley, the second Earl of Ferrers, and Mary, the 
daughter of Sir Richard Levinge, Bart. She was born, 
August 24, 1707, at her father's seat, Staunton Harold, 
Leicestershire, four miles to the northeast from Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch, the domain of the Earl of Huntingdon, as Mar- 
quis of Hastings, and ten or twelve miles south from Don- 
nington Castle, the Earl's residence. Her youth was marked 
by great sobriety and thoughtfulness. In her twenty- 
first year, June 3, 1728, she became the wife of Theophi- 
lus Hastings, the ninth Earl of Huntingdon. Seven chil- 
dren were born to them within the next ten years. The 
care of her young family occupied nearly the whole of her 
time during this period ; and the exercise of a generous 
hospitality and abounding charitj^, at Donnington Park, 
secured for her the reputation of a "Lady Bountiful." 

In the winter of 1738-39, while at their London home, 
Downing Street, Westminster, the sisters of the Earl, Lady 
Betty, and Lady Margaret, Hastings, were attracted to the 
meetings of the Messrs. Wesley, Whitefield, and Ingham, 
at Neville's Court Chapel, Fetter Lane. Lady Margaret 
was the first to experience the power of renewing and 
divine grace. In conversation with the Countess, she said, 
" that since she had known and believed in the Lord Jesus 



SELINA SHIRLEY, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON. 553 

Christ for life and salvation, she had been as happy as an 
angel." It made a deep impression on the Countess ; and, 
during a severe and alarming illness, soon after, she, also, 
was led to accept the Gospel message. She now gave her- 
self wholly to the service of God, and entered heartily into 
the work of evangelization. With her husband, who was 
in entire sjTnpathy with her, she attended the meetings of 
the Methodists, and invited the preachers to her hospitable 
mansion. 

The Earl died of apoplexy, October 13, 1746, and she was 
left with the command of a large fortune. Two years later, 
she took a house in Park Street, Grosvenor Square, ap- 
pointed Whitefield (just returned from America) her chap- 
lain, and opened her spacious parlors for the preaching of 
the Gospel ; and there, at her special invitations, many of 
the nobility listened to the word from the lips of White- 
field, Romaine, and other evangelical preachers. 

But her work was not confined to her parlors. She 
sought the most zealous and godly ministers of the Church 
of England, brought them to London, and employed them 
as her chaplains and preachers. When the Tabernacle was 
rebuilt, she attached herself to the congregation, besides 
contributing freely t(t its erection ; as aftenvards to Tot- 
tenham Court Road Chapel, She assisted her preachers in 
the work of itinerating and organizing societies all over the 
kingdom. She encouraged the young converts to speak for 
their Lord, and the most promising to enter the ministry. 
She built chapels, at Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Bath, 
Bristol, Birmingham, and other places, more than three- 
score in all, and ajDpointed supplies for the pulpits. 

An ecclesiastical body grew up under her fostering hand, 
which took the name of " Lady Huntingdon's Connection." 
Though, like the Wesleys, she never left " The Church," 
she became the head of a large body of churches and min- 
isters, outside of the Establishment, holding Annual Con- 
ferences, stationing preachers, training students at her Col- 
lege in Trevecca, Wales (opened in 1768), building chapels, 
and providing, among her friends, and the friends of the 



554 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Gospel, the means of maintaining all these enterprises. 
Not unfrequently, she accompanied her preachers on their 
evangelistic excursions, and encouraged the feeble societies 
by her sympathizing presence. As long as he lived, George 
Whitefield was her counselor, and chief preacher. She and 
her " Connection " were Calvinists of the type of Hervey, 
Berridge, and Romaine. 

Her most useful life was greatly prolonged. In her 
eighty-fourth year, November, 1790, she ruptured a blood- 
vessel, which brought on a gradual decline, during which 
she exhibited the utmost resignation and. confidence. 
As the hour of her departure drew on, she said: "My 
work is done ; I have nothing to do, but to go to my 
Father." She finished her work, and entered into rest, 
June 17, 1791, — dying at her house, adjacent to her chapel, 
in Spa Fields. Her remains were deposited in the family 
vault, at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 

In 1764, she published a Collection of 179 Hymns, for 
the use of her chapels. The book was enlarged in succes- 
sive editions. The work underwent, in 1774, a thorough 
revision by her cousin, the Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, 
and was published with the title, — " A Select Collection of 
Hymns, to be universally sung in all the Countess of Hunt- 
ingdon's Chapels. Collected by her Ladyship. 'What 
meanest thou, O sleeper! Arise, call upon thy God.' 
Jonah, ch. i., ver. 6." It contained 297 Hymns. The hymn, 
on the Last Judgment, beginning 

" We soon shall hear the midnight cry," 

is attributed to her pen, and appeared in the fourth edition 
(1772). In most Collections, the second part, beginning 
with 

" When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come," 

is alone given. It is not known that she wrote any other, 
although she has been credited with several ;— if any, they 
can not now be identified. 



WALTER SHIELEY. 555 

WALTER SHIRLEY. 

1725-1786. 

Mr. Shirley belonged to the noble house of Ferrers. 
He was the fourth son of the Hon. Laurence Shirley, who 
was himself the fourth son of Robert Shirley, the first Earl 
Ferrers, and brother of the second and third Earls, Wal- 
ter, the son, was the brother of the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
Earls, and the first cousin of the Countess of Huntingdon, 
whose father was the second Earl. His mother, Anne, was 
the daughter of Sir Walter Clarges, Bart, (for whom he 
was named), of Aston, Hertfordshire, and granddaughter 
of Philip, the fourth Earl of Pembroke and first Earl of 
Montgomery. Her son, Walter, was born in 1725, and re- 
ceived a liberal education. At the house of Lady Hunting- 
don, he was made acquainted with the Rev. Henry Venn, 
then of Clapham, near London. The conversation and 
preaching of Mr. Venn, then a youth of great promise, re- 
sulted in Mr. Shirley's conversion. 

Having obtained orders in the Church of England, he 
was employed awhile in supplying pulpits, and preaching, 
as opportunity offered, at London. He was presented, in 
1768, to the Rectory of Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland, 
in the diocese of Tuam, a living in the gift of the Earl of 
Clanricarde, who was of the Shirley lineage. Here, and 
often at Dublin, as well as in his frequent and protracted 
visits in England, he faithfully preached the Gospel, amid 
obloquy, and fierce opposition from the clergy and others. 
Though called to an account for his "exceptionable doc- 
trines," by his superiors, he boldly declared his determina- 
tion to preach the doctrines of the Articles and Homilies, 
"in defiance of the whole world." 

In the early part of 1760, he was deeply afflicted by the 
conduct of his eldest brother Laurence, Earl Ferrers. On 
the 13th of February, the Earl was arrested and sent to 



666 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tlie Tower, for the murder of his steward, Mr. Jolmson, at 
Staunton Harold. He was brought to trial, April 16th, and 
on the 18th condemned to be hanged and dissected. The 
execution took place. May 5th, at Tyburn. The unhappy 
affair created a great commotion at the time, and Mr. Shir- 
ley was greatly exercised in respect to his brother. It 
has been conjectured, but is not known, that it was shortly 
after this event, that he wrote the hymn, of which the sec- 
ond stanza begins with 

" Peace, troubled soul ! whose plaintive moan." 

He was married, August 27, 1766, to Miss Henrietta Ma- 
ria, the eldest daughter of Mr. John Phillips, of Dublin, 
Ireland. One son and three daughters were the fruit of 
this happy union. In the years 1770, 1771, Mr. Shirley 
was involved in a controversy with the Wesleys, and their 
preachers. The " Conference," held at London, in August, 
1770, had adopted a Declaration in respect to Calvinism, 
that seriously offended their Calvinistic brethren. In con- 
sequence, Mr. Shirley issued a Circular letter to the seri- 
ous clergy and others, urging them to go, in a body, to the 
Conference to be held at Bristol in 1771, and insist on a 
formal recantation of the obnoxious Minutes. The recan- 
tation was, after considerable discussion, secured. This 
was the occasion of Mr. Fletcher's writing his celebrated 
"Checks to Antinomianism " (addressed to Mr. Shirley), 
and of the controversy that followed. 

In 1774, at the request of Lady Huntingdon, Mr. Shirley 
prepared a new and revised edition of her Hymn-Book, 
which, with some additions after her decease, became the 
standard hymn-book of the Connection. In 1760, he had 
published a volume of Sermons, dedicated to his parishion- 
ers at Loughrea, to which Mr. Fletcher made repeated ref- 
erence in his " Checks." He also published a " Narrative " 
of the transactions at "the Bristol Conference." Besides 
his poem on " Liberty," appended to his " Sermons," and 
another on " The Judgment," he wrote several hymns, of 
which the following are perhaps the most familiar : 



WALTER SHIELEY. 557 

"Lord ! dismiss us with thy blessing," etc., 
' ' Worthy the Lamb of boundless sway, " etc. , 

and 

"Flow fast, my tears! the cause is great," etc. 

It may be proper to credit him, also, with the well-known 
lyric, beginning 

"Sweet the moments, rich in blessing," 

originally written by the Rev. James Allen, but so thor- 
oughly reconstructed by Mr. Shirley, as to constitute a 
new and much more perfect hymn. 

He continued in the faithful discharge of his duties as a 
Gospel preacher, until he was worn down by disease of a 
dropsical character. When he could no longer go abroad, 
he gathered the people around him at home, and, sitting in 
his chair, proclaimed the message of salvation to the listen- 
ing and anxious multitude that thronged the place. He 
died, April 7, 1786, at the house of his brother-in-law, 
George Kiernan, Dublin, in his sixty-first year. 

Mr. Shirley's hymns were first published in the revised 
edition (1774) of Lady Huntingdon's Collection, The fol- 
lowing was written to be sung " before Sermon " : 

" Source of light and power divine! 
Deign upon thy truth to shine ; 
Lord! behold thy servant stands, — 
Lo ! to thee he lifts his hands ; 
Satisfy his soul's desu-e, 
Touch his Ups with holy fire. 

" Softly fall the healing sound, 
Like the dew-drop ou the ground ; 
Dix)oping plants shall soon revive, 
Faith in bud begm to live. 
And enlarged shall soon disclose 
Beauties of the full-blown rose, 

" In thy pure and holy way, 
Heights and gi-eater heights display; 
So that while our race we run. 
We may thiak it but begun ; 



558 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Nor the past contemplate more, 
Urgent still on what's before. 

" Ope thy treasures; so shall fall 
Unction sweet on him, on all ; 
Till, by odors scattered round, 
Christ himself be traced and found; 
Then shall every raptured heart 
Rich Ln peace and joy, depart." 



WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE. 

1759-1829. 

Mr. Shrubs OLE was born at Sheerness, Kent, England, 
November 21, 1759. His father, William Shrubsole, born 
(1729) at the maritime town of Sandwich, Kent, was a la- 
borious shipwright of Sheerness. At the time of his son's 
birth, he was employed as an humble laborer in the Dock- 
yard, during the week, and as a lay-reader, on the Sabbath, 
for a feeble body of Dissenters gathered mainly from the 
poorer classes of the neighborhood. Subsequently he be- 
came a recognized preacher, though still continuing to la- 
bor at his trade to the end of life (1797). 

At a suitable age, the son, also, became a shipwright, and 
labored in the Dockyard at Sheerness. Subsequently, he 
obtained a clerkship, under one of the superior officers, 
and so conducted himself as to be generally esteemed. 
At the age of twenty-six, he went up to London, and was 
appointed a clerk in the Accountant's department of the 
Bank of England,^ — boarding with the Rev. Richard Wood- 
gate, the jjastor of the Jewin Street Chapel, who was a friend 
of his father, having served with him in Chatham Dock- 
yard as a shiiowright, while holding the pastorate of a Dis- 
senting congregation. His religious impressions were thus 
deepened, and at length resulted in a thorough conversion. 
He connected himself with the church at Easter, 1787. On 



WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE. 559 

tlie death of Mr. Woodgate, in June of tlie same year, lie 
removed to Walworth, where he continued until his mar- 
riage to a Miss Morris, of the Tabernacle, in 1791. His 
wife died in 1810 ; and, in 1812, he took apartments in the 
Bank of England, which he occupied until his death. His 
position at the Bank was, from time to time, made more re- 
sponsible and honorable, as well as lucrative, resulting in 
his appointment, at length, as Secretary to the Committee 
of the Treasury. 

At the formation of the London Missionary Society, he 
became one of its ardent friends, and, soon after, one of its 
Directors and honorary Secretaries. He took a prominent 
part in the Bible Societj^, the Religious Tract Society, the 
Hibernian Society, the London Female Penitentiary, and 
other similar institutions. He rendered great service to 
Hoxton Academy (since Highbury College), and sought in 
every w^ay to promote the cause of religion. He was w^ell- 
read in matters pertaining to the history and doctrines of 
the Church, and wielded, also, a ready and skillful pen. 
He made several contributions, prose and verse, to the 
Catalogue of " The Religious Tract Society," and the col- 
umns of The YoiiWs Magazine. He was universally re- 
spected and esteemed, in business and religious circles. 
He was generally regarded as a model man of business ; 
distinguished for great accuracy and reliability; of ster- 
ling integrity; and mthal kind, affable, and exemplary 
as a true Christian gentleman. He died, August 23, 1829, 
at Highbury, London, of apoplexy, having nearly completed 
the seventieth year of his age. 

In addition to several excellent hymns still in current 
use, he wrote, in verse, a " Christmas Carol," and an " Elegy 
on the Death of Lord Nelson." The hymn beginning 
"When, streaming fi*om tlie Eastern skies," 

was contributed to the August Number of the Christian 
Observer for 1813. It is signed, "Probus," and entitled, 
"Daily Duties, Dependence and Enjoyment." His hymn, 

"Zion! awake, thy strength renew," etc., 



560 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

was contributed, with the signature, W. S., to the July 
aSTumber of the Ei^angelical Magazine for 1796. The 
hymn beginning with 

"Arm of the Lord! awake, awake," 

was induded in a small volume of " Missionary Hymns," 
published in 1795. They are all reproduced in Dr. Morri- 
son's " Missionary Fathers " (1844), where they are attribu- 
ted to Mr. Shrubsole. The following stanzas are from a 
hymn of six stanzas, entitled, — " Looking unto Jesus": 

' ' In all the paths my feet piirsue, 

While travelling to my heavenly rest, 

My wearied powers their strength renew, 
My spirit feels divinely blessed, 

When, Saviour ! to thy cross I flee. 

And my whole soul commit to thee. 

" When with a weight of care I bend, 

Oppressed beneath the heavy load, 
And troubles every step attend, 

In life's perplexed and rugged road, 
Then, my Saviour ! be thou near, 
My cares to take, my heart to cheer. 

" Soon what will all the world avail. 

Its hopes and fears, its joys and strife ? 

Soon even flesh and heart must fail, 
And leave me on the verge of life ; 

Then, Saviour ! thou my portion be, 

In death and in eternity." 



LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. 

1791-1865. 

Mrs. L. H. Sigourney was the only child of Ezekiel 
Huntley, of Norwich, Conn., where she was born, Sep- 
tember 1, 1791. Her father, who was a firm and patriotic 



LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY. 561 

defender of Ms country during tlie War of tlie Revolution, 
had charge of the estate of Madam Lathrop (a physician's 
widow and a governor's daughter), and resided in her spa- 
cious mansion, where his iUustrious daughter was born. 

The wild and picturesque scenery in the midst of which 
her youth was passed, and from which she gathered so much 
poetic inspiration, she thus describes : 

' ' Sweetly wild 
Were the scenes that charmed me when a child :— 
Rocks — gray rocks, with their caverns dark, 
Leapmg rills, like the diamond sx^ai-k. 
Torrent voices, thundering hj, 
When the pride of the vernal floods swelled high, 
And quiet roofs, like the hanging nest, 
Mid cliffs, by the feathery foliage dressed." 

She was a precocious child, having learned, at three years 
of age, to read well, and, at seven, to compose simple 
verses, rhythmical and religious. She grew to womanhood, 
in the midst of the most refined society of the period, and 
with the best educational advantages. 

In her nineteenth year she opened, and for two years 
(1810-1812) conducted, at Norwich, a school for young 
ladies, associating with herself her most intimate friend. 
Miss Ann Maria Hyde, whose beautiful life she commem- 
orated, after her early decease, in "The Biography and 
Writings of Ann Maria Hyde," published in 1816. She 
removed to Hartford, Conn., in 1814, where she opened a 
select school for young ladies. She had, for years, accus- 
tomed herself to composition, both in j)oetry and prose ; 
and, in 1815, at the solicitation of appreciative friends, she 
was induced to commit to the press her first volume, enti- 
tled, " Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse," — favorably noticed 
In the first Number of the North American Review, May, 
1815. It led to the reception of requests, from various 
periodicals, for contributions from her pen. In the summer 
of 1819, she was married to Mr. Charles Sigourney, of 
Huguenot descent, a merchant of Hartford, and a gentle- 
man of education and literary taste. She now became the 



562 THE POETS OP THE CHURCH. 

mistress of a beautiful rural residence, commanding an ad- 
mirable view of tlie town and its surroundings — lier happy 
home for twenty years of a most active life. 

Without attempting to follow her, in the career of 
authorship upon which she entered not long after her mar- 
riage, it will be much more to the purpose to call attention 
to the following resume of her literary life from the pen 
of the late Prof. Charles D. Cleveland, of Philadelphia : 

" The true interests of her own sex and the good of the 
rising generation stimulated her efforts in such works as 
' Letters to Pupils '; ' Letters to Young Ladies '; ' Whisper 
to a Bride'; and ' Letters to Mothers.' The guidance of 
the unfolding mind, impressed on her, as it was, night and 
day, by the assiduous home-culture of her own children, 
called forth the 'Child's Book'; 'Girl's Book'; 'Boy's 
Book'; 'How to be Happy'; and a variety of other juve- 
nile works, which have been deservedly popular. A convic- 
tion of the importance of TemjDerance suggested ' Water- 
Drops'; of the blessings of Peace, 'Olive Leaves.' 'Scenes 
in my Native Land ' portray some of the attractions of the 
country that she loved ; and ' Pleasant Memories of Pleas- 
ant Lands ' give us life pictures of a tour [1840] in Europe. 
Those ' who go down to the sea in ships ' find a companion 
in her 'Sea and Sailor'; the forgotten red man is remem- 
bered in 'Pocahontas'; the harp of comfort for mourners 
is hung upon the ' Weeping Willow'; while the young and 
blooming may hear her ' Voice of Flowers ' among the 
lilies of the field. ' Sayings of the Little Ones, and Poems 
for their Mothers,' express her sympathies for the helpless 
stranger just entering life ; ' Past Meridian,' for the 
wearied pilgrim trembling at the gates of the west ; while 
' Lucy Howard's Journal ' shows the influence of a right 
home-ti'aining on the duties and destinies of woman." 

She wrote not less than fifty-six volumes, besides contrib- 
uting more than 2,000 articles to nearly 300 different period- 
cals- With wonderful versatility, and with keen powers of ob- 
servation, ever alive to the calls of humanity, philanthropy, 
and religion, she was ready to seize upon passing events 



LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOUENEY. 563 

and tides of thought, and in easy-flowing verse to give 
exjDression to her large-hearted sympathy in every good 
work. The late Samuel G. Goodrich, one of her neighbors 
and intimate friends, says : "Few persons living have exer- 
cised a wider influence than Mrs. Sigourney ; no one that 
I now know can look back upon a long and earnest career 
of such unblemished beneficence." 

After a union of nearly forty years, her husband was re- 
moved by death, December 30, 1854, in his seventy-seventh 
year. She survived him until June 10, 1865, when she, 
also, peacefully entered into rest. 

Mrs. Sigourney wrote but few hymns. She made some 
contributions to Nettleton's " Village Hymns " (1824), to 
Leonard Bacon's Supplement to Dwight's Collection (1833), 
to the Connecticut Collection (1845), and a few others. The 
following, written not later than 1830, was suggested by 
the words, — "As thy day, so shall thy strength be": 

" When adverse winds and waves arise, 
And in my heart despondence sighs, — 
When life her throng of care reveals, 
And weakness o'er my spirit steals, — 
Grateful I hear the kind decree, 
That, ' as my day, my strength shall be, 

" When, with sad footsteps, mem'ry roves 
Mid smitten joys, and buried loves, — 
When sleep my tearful pillow flies. 
And dewy morning di'inks my sighs, — 
Still to thy promise, Lord ! I flee. 
That, ' as my day, my strength shall be,' 

" One trial more must yet be passed, — 
One pang, — the keenest and the last; 
And when, with brow convulsed and pale, 
My feeble, quivering heart-strings fail, 
Redeemer ! grant my soul to see 
That, 'as her day, her strength shall be.' " 



564 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 



CAROLINE SPRAGUE SMITH. 

" About the year 1853," says Mrs. Smith, in a letter to 
the compiler of these sketches, " I heard the Rev. Dr. H. 
M. Dexter, of Boston, preach a sermon on ' The Adapted- 
ness of Religion to the Wants of the Aged.' I went home 
and embodied the thought in the hymn, 

' Tarry with me, my Saviour ! ' 

I sent it to Mr. Hallock, for The Messenger. He returned 
it as 'not adapted to the readers of the paper.' Years 
after I sent it, without any signature, to the little Andover 
paper. . . *". I send it to you in its original form, in a little 
paper of which my sister, Mrs. Terry [Rochester, N. Y.], 
is editress." 

Mrs. Smith resides at Andover, Mass. She is the wife of 
the Rev. Charles Smith, the pastor of the South Congre- 
gational Church of Andover. Her maiden name was Caro- 
line L. Sprague. She was born at Salem, Mass. The hymn 
in its original form, is subjoined : 

"THE OLD MAN'S PRAYER." 

"Suggested by a sermon from Liike xxiv. 29 : 'Abide with us ; for it is toward 
evening, and the day is far spent.' " 

1. " Tarry with me, O my Saviour! 

For the day is passing by ; 
See, the shades of evening gather, 

And the night is drawing nigh ; 
Tarry with me — tarry with me ! 

Pass me not unheeded by ! 

2, " Many friends were gathered round me, 

In the bright days of the past; 
But the grave has closed above them, 

And I linger here the last ! 
I am lonely : tarry with me 

Till this dreary night is past. 



CAROLINE SPRAGUE SMITH. 565 

3. " Dimmed for me is earthly beauty ; 

Yet the spii'it's eye would faLa 
Rest upon thy lovely features : 

Shall I seek, dear Lord, in vain ? 
Tarry with me, O my Saviour ! 

Let me see thy smile again. 

4. " Dull my ear to earth-bom music : 

Speak thou, Lord ! in words of cheer ; 
Feeble, tottering my footstep, 

Sinks my heart with sudden fear: 
Cast thine arms, dear Lord ! around me, 

Let me feel thy presence near. 

5. * ' Faithful memory paints before me 

Every deed and thought of sin ; 
Open thou the blood-filled fountain, 

Cleanse my guilty soul -within: 
Tarry, thou forgiving Saviour ! 

Wash me wholly from my sin. 

6. " Deeper, deeper grow the shadows; 

Paler now the glowing west ; 
Swift the night of death advances,— 

Shall it be a night of rest ? 
Tarry with me, O my Saviour ! 

Lay my head upon thy breast. 

7. " Feeble, trembling, panting, dying, 

Lord ! I cast myself on thee : 
Tarry with me through the darkness. 

While I sleep, still watch by me, 
Till the morning, — then awake me, 

Dearest Lord! to dwell with thee." 

It was abridged for tTie " Plymouth Collection," in 1856, 
and for the " Sabbath Hymn Book," in 1858. In the form 
now mostly used, it first appeared in the " Songs of the 
Church," 1862. 



566 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH. 

1808 . 

Me. Smith is everywhere known in his native land, by 
the hymn, 

" My country! 'tis of thee," etc., 

— proba-bly more than any other regarded as the American 
National Hymn. 

Prof. Smith was born, October 21, 1808, at Boston, Mass. 
He graduated, at Harvard University, in 1829. Three years 
were spent in theological study, at Andover Theological 
Seminary, terminating in 1832. While at Andover, he 
wrote several of his popular hjnnns, to which he was urged 
by Mr. Lowell Mason, then of Boston. He also contributed 
largely to the " Encyclopaedia Americana," at that time in 
process of publication. He edited for eighteen months the 
/ Baptist Missionary Magazine. He was ordained, Febru- 
^ ary 12, 1834, as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Wa- 
terville. Me., where he remained for eight years, occupying 
at the same time the Professorship of Modern Languages 
in Waterville College [Colby University]. He began the 
year, 1842, as pastor of the First Baptist Church of New- 
ton, Mass. In connection with his pastorate, he edited, for 
seven years, the Christian ReDieio, a Baptist Quarterly 
published at Boston. In 1854, he resigned liis pastorate, 
and devoted himself, in connection with the editorship of 
the publications of the American Baptist Missionary Union, 
to literary pursuits. 

His contributions to the Christian Renieio and other pe- 
riodicals have been many and valuable. His writings are 
characterized by gracefulness and spirituality, as well as 
accurate thought. In 1843, he edited, with the Rev. Baron 
Stow, H.D., a valuable compilation of hymns, called " The 
Psalmist," which has had a very large circulation among 
the Baptist churches of America. This was followed by 



SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH. 567 

the " Social Psalmist," " for Conference Meetings and Fam- 
ily Worship," 1844. " The Life of Rev. Joseph Grafton " 
(1845) was from his pen. He edited, also, " Lyric Gems " 
(1844), and contributed a large part of the songs in the 
" Juvenile Lyre," edited by Mr. Lowell Mason. 

Among the hymns that he wi^ote at Andover Seminary is 
to be numbered the lyric that, as now written, begins with 

" To-day the Saviour calls." 

It was suggested by the casual reading of a line in Schil- 
ler's " Maria Stuart," — " Schwarz hangt der Himmel iiber 
diesem Land." It was very much abridged and altered by 
Mr. Hastings, who published the reconstructed form in his 
" Spiritual Songs. " 

Dr. Smith, in a communication to the author of this 
book, says : 

" ' My country ! 'tis of thee,' 

was stimulated into being by a collection of German music 
books, brought to this country by Mr. Woodbridge, and 
handed to me by Mr. Mason, with the request that I would 
adapt any of the pieces that struck me favorably to English 
words. It is not a translation, though in the German the 
words were patriotic. It was first sung at a children's 
Fourth of July celebration in Park Street Church, Boston, 
in 1832 or 1833. 

' Auspicious morning ! hail ! ' 

was written for a similar celebration in Boston, in 1841. 

* Spirit of peace and holiness,' 

was written for the installation service of Baron Stow, D.D., 
as pastor of Baldwin Place Church, Boston, in November, 
1832. 

' The solemn service now is done,' 

(in the original ' And now the solemn deed is done ') was 



568 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

written for the ordination or installation of some friend,— 
I have forgotten who it was. 

' Planted in Christ, the living vine,' 

was written for the public services at the organization of a 
new church in the little town of Boscawen, 'N. H." 

Prof. Smith was, in 1853, honored with the degree of 
D.D., by Colby University. 

The following beautiful effusion on the words, " I am 
now ready to be offered," is from his pen : 

"Ready now to spread my pinions, 
Glad to wing my flight away 
From the gloom that hovers round me, 
To the realms of endless day. 

' ' Ready to be freed from sorrow, 
Tears and partings, toil and pain ; 
Ready for the heavenly mansion; 
Life is dear, but death is gain. 

"Ready, with the just made perfect, 
Clothed in robes of white to be ; 
Swelling the enraptured chorus, 
Singing joy and victory. 

"As the bird, with warbling music, 
Soars above our feeble sight. 
Singing still, and still ascending, 
Melting in the glorious light, — 

" So the dying saint, departing. 

Joyful takes his heavenward way ; 
Life and time and gladness blending 
Li the light of perfect day." 



GAEL JOHANN PHILIPP SPITTA. 569 

CARL JOHANN PHILIPP SPITTA. 

1801-1859. 

The Rev. Dr. Spitta was born, August 1, 1801, of par- 
ents in humble life, at Hanover, Germany. His fatlier was 
of French descent, and died when the son was in his fourth 
year. The training of the boy devolved thus on the mother, 
who was a convert from Judaism. Her intention to send 
him to the University was relinquished, in consequence 
of an illness at ten years of age, from which he suffered 
four years. He was then apprenticed to a watch-maker of 
the town, with whom he continued four years, diligent and 
circumspect. Even then he addicted himself to the compo- 
sition of hymns. 

A younger brother, who was studying for the ministry, 
was drowned in 1818, and his mother consented to the de- 
sire of Philipp to take his place. After a preparatory course 
of six months at home, he entered the highest class of the 
school, and, in 1821, the University of Gottingen, complet- 
ing his curriculum in 1824. He accepted a tutorship for 
four years in a private family at Liine, near Liineburg, 
where, in the midst of congenial religious society, he wrote 
many of his sweetest hymns. 

In 1828, he entered the Lutheran ministry as the assistant 
pastor of Sudwalde, Hanover. Two years later, he received 
the appointment of chaplain to the prisoners and garri- 
son of Hameln, Hanover. In 1833 he published his " " Psal- 
tery and Harp," containing sixty-six of his hymns. The 
book sjDeedily became highly popular among all classes, 
notwithstanding the vast number [250] of hymn-books (con- 
taining 60,000 hymns) already in circulation among the 
Gennan people. He married, October 4, 1837, Joanna Mary 
Magdalene Hotzen, and immediately took charge of the 
Lutheran Church of Wechold, near Hoya, Hanover, where 
he labored, happily and successfully, about ten years. In 
1843, he published another and the last installment [40] of 



570 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

liis hymns, which, also, became quite popular. In 1847, he 
received the appointment of Ecclesiastical Superintendent 
at Wittingen, and, while thus officiating, published a number 
of his sermons. He was next (1853) appointed chief pastor 
of Peine, in the county of Hildesheim, and, two years after, 
was honored by his University with the degree of D.D. 
In July, 1859, he was preferred to the church at Bargdorf, 
with the charge of a large district, which he had Just begun 
to visit, when he was struck dowTi with gastric fever, fol- 
lowed by cramp of the heart, which suddenly terminated 
his valuable life, September 28, 1859. 

Of his eight children, one died an infant. With his two 
daughters he took delight in singing, every evening, his 
hymns to his own music, with such effect that crowds were 
wont to gather under his windows to listen. A volume of 
his "Posthumous Sacred Pieces" was published shortly 
after his decease. A Translation of his hymns into Eng- 
lish Verse was published by Eichard Massie, in two Series 
(the first in 1859), entitled, — "Lyra Domestica : Christian 
Songs for Domestic Edification, translated from the ' Psal- 
tery and Harp' of Spitta." 



ANNE STEELE. 

1716-1778. 

No one of the gentler sex has so largely contributed to 
the familiar hymnology of the Church, as the modest and 
retiring, but gifted and godly, Anne Steele. She may well 
be styled the female "Poet of the Sanctuary." Watts, 
Doddridge, and Wesley, with a few others of the sterner 
sex, had sung well and effectively. But a voice, more 
tender and delicate, giving utterance to the pensive, yearn- 
ing, and glowing emotions characteristic of the sisterhood 
of believers, was needed to perfect the harmony of public 



ANNE STEELE. gTX 

praise. That voice was trained among tlie hills of Hamp- 
shire, in a picturesque hamlet, some fifteen miles only to 
the northwest of Southampton, the birthplace of Isaac 
Watts. 

Anne Steele was the eldest daughter of the Eev. William 
Steele, a gentleman of property by inheritance, and a lum- 
ber-merchant, who ministered, for sixty years, to the Bap- 
tist congregation, at Broughton, Hampshire, as their pastor, 
without salary, — "a man of primitive piety, the strictest 
integrity and benevolence, and the most amiable simplicity 
of manners." She was born, in 1716, at Broughton, in the 
midst of scenery adapted to the cultivation of the poetic 
taste, where she continued to reside to the end of life. At 
an early age, she began to cultivate the poetic gift, and 
wrote, in her youth, a considerable number of hymns. 
She became a member of her father's church, at the age 
of fourteen, and, for nearly half a century, continued to 
adorn her profession, 

" In all the cares of life and love." 

Her affections were given, and her hand pledged, in early 
life, to a young man, named Elscourt. On the day preced- 
ing the date of their anticipated marriage, he had gone to 
the neighboring river for the purpose of bathing, and, get- 
ting beyond his depth, was drowned. Heart-broken at her 
grievous loss, she cherished his memory through life, and 
entertained no similar proposals from any other person. 
She gave her days to works of piety and benevolence, dif- 
fusing throughout her neighborhood the sweet savor of 
godliness, and attaching to herself, and more to her Sav- 
iour, the hearts of the sick, the sorrowing, and the needy. 

The hours of her sorrow were often relieved by tlie com- 
position of a hymn, expressive of her own spiritual condi- 
tion and aspirations. At the earnest and repeated solicita- 
tion of admiring and grateful friends, she yielded a reluc- 
tant consent to the publication of her " Poems, on Subjects 
chiefly Devotional," in two volumes (1760), under the as- 
sumed name of "Theodosia." Her venerable father, over 



572 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

wliom, in liis declining years, slie had long watched with 
all a loving daughter's interest, tenderness, and anxiety, 
was taken from her by death, September 10, 1769. She 
had, in childhood, received an injury, from wiiich she had 
never fully recovered. In her later years, she was, in con- 
sequence, a great sufferer. For years, she was confined to 
her house, and much of the time to the couch of racking 
pain, all of which she endured with the utmost resignation 
and the sweetest patience. Her father's decease hastened 
her own, and she departed this life in November, 1778, at 
the age of sixty-one. 

The two volumes of her Poems, and a third prepared for 
the press by her own hand, with a brief sketch of the au- 
thor, were republished in 1780, by her admiring friend, the 
Rev. Caleb Evans, D.D., of Bristol, England. JN'early all 
her hymns, with much abridgment in some cases, have been 
appropriated to the service of the sanctuary or the family. 
One hundred and more of her productions are found in our 
modern Compilations. The following stanzas are from a 
hymn on "Christ, the Christian's Life": 

" Ob ! for the animating fire 
That tmied harmonious Watts' lyre 

To sweet seraphic strains ! — 
Celestial fire, that bore bis mind 
(Earth's vain amusements left behind) 

To yonder blissful plains. 

" There Jesus lives — transporting name! — 
Jesus inspired the sacred flame, 

And gave devotion wings ; 
With heaven-attracted flight she soared, 
The realms of happiness explored, 

And smiled, and pitied kings. 

" Come, sacred flame! and warm my heart, 
Thy animating power impart 

Sweet dawn of life divine ! 
Jesus ! thy love alone can give 
The power to rise, the power to live; 

Eternal life is thine. 



JOSEPH STENNETT. 573 

Oh ! come, thou life of every grace ! 
Reveal, reveal thy lovely face, 

These gloomy clouds remove, 
And bid my fainting hope arise 
To thy fair mansions in the skies, 

On whigs of faith and love." 



JOSEPH STENNETT. 

1663-1713. 

In Dr. Watts' "Eemnants of Time employed in Prose 
and Verse," is included the sublime liymn, beginning with 

" The mighty frame of glorious grace," 

of which, in a marginal note, he says : "In this ode, there 
are three or four lines taken from Mr. Stennett's ' Sacramen- 
tal Hymns'; for, when I found they expressed my thought 
and design in proper and beautiful language, I chose rath- 
er to borrow, and to acknowledge the debt, than to labor 
hard for worse lines, that I might have the poor pleasure 
of calling them my own." The lines thus borrowed are 
found in the 87th of the " Sacramental Hymns," of which 
the 7th and 11th stanzas are as follows : 

" He, that distributes crowns and thrones, 
Hangs on a tree, and bleeds, and groans: 
He on a cross resigns his breath. 
Who keeps the keys of hell and death. 

" Thus sin, death, and the powers of hell. 
Conquered, disarmed, and wounded fell : 
He mounted then his throne above, 
And conquers sinners by his love." 

Of these eight lines, the first two and the eighth Watts 
adopted mrhatim; while the third and fourth were adopt- 



574 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ed for substance. The book, from wliicli these lines were 
borrowed, was first issued in 1697, with the title,—" Hymns 
in Commemoration of the Snfferings of our Blessed Saviour 
Jesus Christ, composed for the Celebration of his Holy- 
Supper." AVatts, at this time, had published nothing; 
and, doubtless, with his great propensity to verse-making, 
made himself familiar with this humble volume from the 
very year of its j^ublication. Stennett, therefore, was proba- 
bly one of Watts' models, as well as his pioneer. 

Joseph Stennett was a native of Abingdon, on the edge 
of Berkshire, six miles south of the city of Oxford. His 
father, Edward, was from a respectable stock in Lincoln- 
shire ; and his mother, Mary Quelch, was of a reputable 
family in Oxford. The father, at an early age, entered the 
Dissenting ministry, and espoused the cause of the Parlia- 
ment and Commonwealth. At the Restoration, in common 
with the Nonconformists, he was subjected to many dis- 
abilities, privations, and persecutions, having, for a time, 
been imprisoned for conscience' sake. He removed to Wal- 
lingford, and took up his abode in the Castle, where he ex- 
ercised his ministry — sux^porting his family by the practice 
of medicine. He was thus enabled to give his children a 
liberal education. His three sons, Jehudah, Joseph, and 
Benjamin — the eldest, a j)hysician, and the other two, min- 
isters — were all distinguished for their learning ; as was, 
also, his daughter, Mrs. William Morton, of Knaphill, 
Buckinghamshire. The father died in 1689. 

Joseph w^as born in 1663, and spent his youth in Wal- 
lingford. Under the instruction of his godly parents, he 
early became pious, and connected himseK with his father's 
church. He received as good an education as the public 
school at Wallingford could confer, and then, with a view 
to the ministry, perfected himself as much as possible in 
the Hebrew and other oriental, as well as in the French 
and Italian, languages. In the liberal sciences and philos- 
ophy, also, he became proficient; but most in theology, 
both ancient and modern. 

At the age of twenty-two, he accepted an appointment 



JOSEPH STENNETT. 575 

as a teacher in London, and continued in this employment 
for five years, taking an active part in the exciting conflicts 
resulting in the Revolution of 1688. At this date, he mar- 
ried Susanna, the daughter of George Gill, a French emi- 
grant of 1682, and a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to 
Charles II., whose estate, in 1685 (the era of the Revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes), had been confiscated. Mr. Gill 
was a successful merchant, and his elder daughter had mar- 
ried the well-known Rev. Dr. Daniel Williams, Soon after, 
Mr. Stennett was persuaded to exercise his preaching gifts 
as an evening lecturer at a hall in Devonshire Square — the 
church (Sabbatarian Bax^tist) of which his father had been 
for a short time pastor, then worshipi^ing in that place. 
He was ordained their pastor, March 4, 1690. The congre- 
gation soon after removed to Pinners' Hall, where he con- 
tinued to exercise his ministry until his death, — preaching 
to his own people on the seventh day, and elsewhere, al- 
most invariably, on the first day of the week. 

Mr. Stennett was held in high esteem outside of his own 
denomination, being universally regarded as a truly pious 
and learned divine, an accomj^lished scholar, a genuine poet, 
and an exceedingly amiable gentleman. He numbered, 
among his personal friends, Mr. Nahum Tate, the poet- 
laureate, who said of him : " He has the happiness to be 
a good poet, without being a slave to the Muses." Prefer- 
ment awaited him in the Church of England, in case he 
would overcome his scruples against Conformity. Arch- 
bishop Sharp expressed a high opinion of him, as a divine, 
a poet, and a scholar. His " Version of Solomon's Song of 
Songs," in verse (1700), as well as his " Sacramental 
Hymns " (1697), was received with much favor. His pen 
was ever ready for the defence of his principles, and he 
published several brief works of the kind, particularly a 
reply (1704) to David Russen's " Fundamentals without a 
Foundation." 

His health having seriously declined, he was induced 
(1713) to remove to the residence of his sister, Mrs. Mor- 
ton, at Knaphill, but it was too late. He continued to fail, 



576 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

until, in the full exercise of his faculties, he departed this 
life, July 11, 1713,— his widow and four children surviving 
him. His remains were interred in the church-yard of 
Hitchenden, Buckinghamshire, with a Latin epitaph, writ- 
ten by Dr. Ward, of Gresham College, engraved on hia 
tombstone. 
John Dunton speaks of 

" Stennett, the patron and tlie rule of wit, 
The pulpit's honor, and the saints' dehght." 

His "Works" were published (1732) in four volumes, 
not including his "Answer to Mr. Russen's Book upon 
Baptism." His Sabbath hymn, 

"Another six days' work is done," etc., 

by which he is now chieiiy known, contains, in the original 
form, fourteen stanzas ; of which the 1st, 10th, 11th, and 
13th only are generally retained. The hymn, as now in 
use, is taken from Toplady's Collection (1776), who prob- 
ably composed the second stanza. The following lines are 
from " An Hymn " of nine stanzas : 

' ' Awake, my muid ! awake, my song ! 
Awake, my heart ! awake, my tongue ! 
Join, with the grateful, praising throng, 

In offerings to our conmion Lord ; 
Wherever fleeting winds can blow, 
Whei'ever swelling waves can flow, 
Wliere beasts can rove, or plants can grow, 

All creatures praise his name with one accord. 

" That I may sing without control. 
To touch my lip, to touch my soul, 
Lord ! from the altar, send a coal, 

On which my dear Redeemer bled ; 
The flame of so divine a love, 
Too Ann for life or death to move, 
Will the best light and motive prove. 

To warm my heart, and to inform my head. 



SAMUEL STENNETT. 577 

" So shall my tbouglits, so shall my songs, 
In concert with seraphic throngs, 
Rehearse what praise to thee belongs, 

With highest love and purest joy ; 
Till, soaring far from mortal eye, 
I quit this earth and pierce the sky, 
Then to thy radiant throne draw nigh, 

And all eternity in praise employ." 



SAMUEL STENNETT. 
1727-1795. 

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Stennett, thongh not a supe- 
rior poet, wrote some of the most useful and familiar 
hymns in the English language. Thirty-nine of his 
hymns are found in Dr. Rippon's Selection (1787), for 
which the most of them were probably written. 

He was the great-grandson of the Rev. Edward Stennett, 
of Wallingford, England. His father and grandfather, 
both of them named Joseph, were also ministers of distin- 
guished excellence. [See the preceding Sketch. ] His father 
was, for many years, the pastor of the Baptist Church of 
Exeter, where the son was born in 1727, and where the lirst 
ten years of his life were spent. In 1737, his father removed 
to London, having accepted a call to the pastorate of the Bap- 
tist Church worshipping in Little Wild Street, in the imme- 
diate neighborhood of Lincoln's Inn Fields. Here the son 
enjoyed the very best instruction in learning under the tui- 
tion, at first, of the Rev. John Hubbard, Theological Tutor 
at Stepney, and then of the distinguished linguist. Dr. 
John Walker, of the Mile End Academy. Being of schol- 
arly lineage, he himself became a proficient in the sacred 
languages and literature. 

At an early age, he was received into the fellowship of 
his father's church, and, in 1747, became his assistant in the 
37 



678 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ministry. After his father's decease, he was ordained, June 
1, 1758, as the pastor of the chiirjch, and continued in this 
position to the end of life. He received, also, a call, in 
1767, to be the pastor of the Sabbatarian Baptist Church 
(Pinners' Hall), of which his grandfather had been pastor. 
Though he never formally accepted the call, he performed 
the duties of a pastor, and preached for them regularly 
every Saturday morning for twenty years, in addition to 
the performance of his duties as pastor of the church in 
Little Wild Street. 

In 1769, he published two volumes of "Discourses on 
Personal Keligion," containing a systematic exhibition of 
Practical Theology and Experimental Piety ; in 1783, 
"Discourses on Domestic Duties"; in 1786, "Discourses 
on the Parable of the Sower"; and, in 1790, "Discourses 
on the Divine Authority and Various Uses of the Holy 
Scriptures." He employed his pen, also, in defence of his 
Baptist views, in reply to the Rev. Dr. Stephen Addington. 
His " Remarks on the Christian Minister's Reasons for Ad- 
ministering Baptism by Sprinkling or Pouring of Water," 
appeared in 1772 ; and, in 1775, he published "An Answer 
to the Christian Minister's Reasons for Baptizing Infants, 
in a Series of Letters." He published, also, at different 
times, twelve Occasional Sermons. He excelled in beauty 
of style and elegance of diction. " In soft, tender, and in- 
sinuating persuasion and influence," it is said, " he was a 
master." He received the honorary degree of D.D., in 
1763, from King's College, Aberdeen. 

He associated with some of the best society of the me- 
tropolis, by whom he was held in high estimation as a 
scholar, a divine, and a true gentleman. It is said that he 
enjoyed the personal friendship of his sovereign, George 
III., and that preferment in the Church of England was at 
his service. Obliging and kind in disposition, exemplary 
in morals and piety, he made friends everywhere. On the 
16th of March, 1795, he was deprived of the wife of his 
youth. The blow proved too much for his infirm constitu- 
tion, and he sank under it, — surviving her loss only a few 



SAMUEL STENNETT. 579 

montlis. He died— in joyful anticipation of tlie blissful 
world of which lie had so sweetly sung, in his own well- 
known hjann, 

" On Jordan's stormy banks I stand," etc., 

—at the rural retreat, that, for several years, he had occu- 
pied, near Highgate, breathing his last, August 25, 1795, in 
his sixty-eighth year. His " Works," with an " Account of 
his Life and Writings " by W. Jones, were published in 
1824, in three volumes. 

One of his best hymns is the first in Rippon's Selec- 
tion : 

" To God, tlie universal King, 

Let all mankind theii' tribute bring; 

All that have breath ! your voices raise, 

In songs of never-ceasing praise. 

" The spacious earth on which we tread, 
And wider heavens stretched o'er our head, 
A large and solemn temple frame, 
To celebrate its Builder's fame. 

" Here the bright sun, that rules the day, 
' . As through the sky he makes his way. 

To all the world liroclaims aloud 
The boundless sovereignty of God. 

" When from his courts the sun retires. 
And with the day his voice expires, 
The moon and stai-s adopt the song, 
And through the night the praise prolong. 

" The listening earth with rapture hears 
Th' harmonious music of the spheres ; 
And all her tribes the notes repeat, 
That God is wise, and good, and great. 

" But man, endowed with nobler powers. 
His God in nobler strains adores ; 
His is the gift to know the song, 
As well as sing with tuneful tongue." 



580 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

THOMAS STERNHOLD. 

1549. 

" Sternhold and Hopkins " are familiar words to tlie lov- 
ers of sacred song. They were the pioneers of the great 
host of congregational Psalm-singers of Great Britain, and 
greatly helped to make " the service of song " the rule, and 
not the exception, in the worship of God. Their versions 
of the Psalms of David, bound up with the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer, from the year 1562, furnished the people w^th 
the needful aids in this service. 

Thoma.s Sternhold was a native of the parish of Awre, 
near Blakeney, Gloucestershire, England, and was born at 
Hayfield, the ancestral estate of the family. Of the date 
of his birth, and the particulars of his early life and school- 
boy days, nothing definite is known. Anthony Wood, in 
his "Athena3 Oxonienses" (1691), says of him: "Whether 
educated in Wykeham's School, near Winchester, is as yet 
doubtful. Sure it is, that he, having spent some time in 
this University, left it without the honor of a Degree, and 
retiring to the Court of K. Hen. 8, was made Groom of the 
Robes to him ; and, when that King died, he left him in 
liis Will 100 INIarke. Afterwards he continued in that 
Office under K. Ed. 6, at which time he was in some es- 
teem in the Royal Court for his vein in Poetry, and other 
trivial Learning. But being a most zealous Reformer, and 
a very strict liver, he became so scandaliz'd at the amor- 
ous and obscene Songs used in the Court, that he forsooth 
turn'd into English Metre 51 of David's Psalms, and caused 
Musical Notes to be set to them, thinking thereby that the 
Courtiers would sing them instead of their Sonnets, but 
did not, only some few excepted. However, the Poetry 
and Music being admirable, and the best that was made 
and composed in those times, they were thought fit after- 
wards to be sung in all Parochial Churches, as they do yet 
continue." 



THOMAS STERNHOLD. 581 

Wood further says : " What other Poetry, or what Prose 
this our Poet Sternhold hath composed, and left behind, I 
know not, nor any thing else of him, only that he died in 
London or Westminster, in fifteen hundred forty and nine. 
By his last Will and Testament, dated 22 Aug. and proved 
12 Sept. an. 1549, wherein he is stiled Groom of the King's 
Majesty's Robes, it appears that he died seized of Lands in 
Slackstead in Hampsire, of the Farms of Conynger, Wil- 
lersley, and Holgreaves in the same County, and of Lands 
in the Parish of Bodmin, and elsewhere in Cornwall." 

This comprises about all that is known personally of this 
worthy old Reformer. Hopkins was his townsman, and 
associate from childhood. He, with others, completed what 
Sternhold began. The year before he died, Sternliold pub- 
lished a version of nineteen of the Psalms, with the title, — 
"Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David, 
and drawen into English Metre by Thomas Sternhold, 
Grome of ye Kynges Maiesties Robes." At the end of the 
year 1549, was published, — " All such Psalmes of David as 
Thomas Sternehold, late Groome of ye Kinges Maiesties 
Robes, didde in his Lifetime draw into English Metre." 
The book contained 37 psalms ; but Wood credits him 
with 51 translations. In 1562, the Versions of all the 
Psalms were published with the Book of Common Prayer, 
and called, — "The AVhole Booke of Psalmes collected into 
English Meetre by T. Sternhold, J. Hopkins, and others, 
conferred with the Ebrue, with apt notes to sing them witli- 
all. — Set forth and allowed to be sung in ill churches, 
of all the people together before and after Morning and 
Evening praier ; as also before and after sermons and 
moreover in private houses, for their godlie solace and 
comfort, laieng apart all ungodlie songs, and balades, 
which tend onelie to the nourishing of vice and corrupting 
of youth." 

" Certaine Chapters of the Proverbs of Solomon, drawn 
into Metre," sometimes ascribed to Sternhold, is said, by 
Lowndes, to be " untruely " printed under his name. The 
wonderful success of Sternhold and his coadjutors in the 



582 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

work of reform, and the particular influence of the prac- 
tice of psalm-singing introduced by them, are graphically 
described by the godly Bishop Jewel, in a part of a Latin 
letter, written March 5, 1560, at London (" Works," Parker 
Society Edition, TV., 1230), of which the following is an 
accurate translation : 

" Religion is now somewhat more established than it 
was. The people are every where exceedingly inclined to 
the better part. Ecclesiastical and popular music has very 
greatly helped it on. For, as soon as they had once com- 
menced singing in public, in only one little church in Lon- 
don, immediately not only the neighboring churches, but 
even far-distant cities, began to vie with each other in the 
same practice. You may now sometimes see at Paul's 
Cross, after the sermon, six thousand persons, old men, 
boys, girls, singing and praising God together. This sadly 
annoys the mass-priests [sacrificos] and the devil. For 
they perceive that by these means the sacred discourses 
sink more deeply into the minds of men, and that their 
kingdom is weakened and shaken at almost every note." 

One of the Psalms then sung, doubtless, was Sternhold's 
23d: 

' ' My Shepherd is the living Lord, nothing therefore I need ; 
In pastures fair, with watei'S calm, he sets me forth to feed ; 
He did convert and glad my soul, and brought my mmd in frame, 
To walk in paths of righteousness for his most holy name. 
Yea, though I walk in vale of death, yet will I fear none ill, 
Thy rod, thy^staff , doth comfort me, and thou art with me still. 
And, in the presence of my foes, my table thou hast spread ; 
Thou shalt, O Lord ! fill full my cup, and eke anoint my head. 
Through all my life, thy favor is so frankly shewed to me, 
That in thy house, for evermore, my dwelling-place shall be." 



JOHN STOCKER. 583 



JOHN STOCKER. 



Diligent researches, on tlie part of Mr. Daniel Sedgwick, 
the veteran hymnologist of London, and others, have failed 
to elicit anything relative to the personal history of John 
Stocker. He is known only as a contributor of original 
hymns to the Gospel Magazine, of London. In the March 
Number for 1776— in which, also, first appeared Toplady's 
" Rock of Ages " — was published Stocker's hymn, in nine 
stanzas, beginning 

" Thy mercy, my God! is the theme of my song," 

with the heading,—" I Avill sing of the Mercy of the Lord 
for ever. — Psalm Ixxxix. " The hymn is subscribed, " J. S. " 
Another hymn, signed " J. Stocker," appeared in the Octo- 
ber Number for the same year. 

Four more of his hymns appeared in the May Number 
for 1777, and thi'ee in the July Number for the same year. 
Among the latter, is found his 

" Gracious Spirit! Dove divine!" etc., 

inscribed "To God the Holy Ghost." It contains six 
stanzas. These nine hymns are his only memorial. It 
is said that he resided at Honiton, on the Otter, Devon- 
shire, England. It is conjectured that he was a friend of 
Toplady, who had been settled, several years, at New Ot- 
tery and Broad Hembury, both in the immediate neigh- 
borhood of Honiton, and who, in 1776, had become the 
Editor of the Oospel Magazine, at London. The first of 
these hymns, complete, was included in Toplady's Collec- 
tion, the same year (1776). One of the three hymns pub- 
lished in July, 1777 (wTitten, possibly, just before his de- 
cease), was entitled, " Tlie Departing Believer." Of its ten 
stanzas, the last five are subjoined : 

' ' Adieu, my friends ! adieu, my foes ! 
I bid you aU farewell ; 



584 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

My soul by faith her Saviour knows, 
And flies with him to dwell. 

" His hand shall guide me safe through death; 
His angels shall convey 
My soul to paradise, from earth. 
Triumphantly away. 

" Happy the soul that knows his power, 
The heart that feels his love ; 
Glad shall my ransomed spirit soar 
To richer joys above. 

" Let every saint, and every friend. 
Rejoice and sing with me. 
While I on angels' wings ascend 
My Saviour's face to see. 

" And, as I mount, I'll louder sing 
Salvation through the skies. 
And make the starry concave ring 
With praises as I rise." 



HUGH STOWELL. 

1799-1865. 
The hymn beginning 

"From every stormy wind that blows," 

is one of the sweetest in the English language, and is a 
great favorite with devout people everywhere in Great Brit- 
ain and America. Its author held a high place among the 
scholars and divines of the Church of England. Canon 
Stowell was a native of the Isle of Man, his father, at the 
time of his birth, being the Rector of Ballaugh, near Ram- 
sey. He was born at Douglas, December 3, 1799. Edu- 
cated for the church, he entered St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford, 



HUGH STOWELL. 685 

in 1818, and graduated in 1822. He took deacon's orders 
in 1823, and was ordained to the priesthood, October 3, 
1824, by the Bishop of Chester. 

He served as Curate, lirst at Shapscombe, Gloucester- 
shire, and then, for two years, at Huddersfield, when he 
accepted the Chapelry of St. Stephen's, Salford, over the 
river from Manchester. He married, in 1828, Anne Susan- 
nah, the eldest daughter of R. Ashworth, Esq., of Pendle- 
ton. His ministry was very successful, and his preaching 
so attractive that a large and beautiful building, called 
Christ Church, was erected for him by subscription, in 
which he gatliered an overflowing congregation. In 1845, 
he was appointed Canon of Chester ; in 1851, Chaplain to 
the Bishop of Manchester ; and subsequently Rural Dean 
of Salford. His sympathies were with the Evangelical 
party in the church, and he was a staunch friend and sup- 
porter of the Bible, Tract, Missionary, and other religious 
and benevolent Societies of the day. His hymn beginning 

with 

' ' Lord of all power and mig'ht, " 

was written for the Jubilee of the British and Foreign Bi- 
ble Society, in 1854. 

His publications were numerous and valuable. The 
most important of them were: "A Collection of Psalms 
and Hymns, suited to the Services of the Church of Eng- 
land" (1831); "Miscellaneous Sermons" (1837); "Tracta- 
rianism Tested by Scripture " (1843) ; " Memoirs of Mrs. 
Stowell" (1851); " Nehemiah, a Model for Men of Busi- 
ness : Lectures " (1854) ; and " Lectures on Christianity in 
the Business of Life " (1858). In verse, he published : " The 
Pleasures of Religion, and other Poems " (1832) ; " Confes- 
sion and other Poems"; and " The Day of Rest and other 
Poems." Besides several Tracts, some of them of large cir- 
culation, pamphlets, and occasional sermons, he contributed 
to several religious serials. 

He died, October 8, 1865. Several of his Sermons were 
published after his decease, as also, forty-six of his hymns. 
" Memoirs of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Hugh Stow. 



686 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

ell," by tlie Rev. J. B. Marsden, appeared in 1868. His 
hymn on " Peace at the Mercy Seat " was contributed, in 
1827, to The Wintefs Wreath^ from which it was copied 
into the February Number of Littell's Religious Magazine^ 
for 1828, Phila. It was reproduced by its author (1832) in 
his " Pleasures of Religion and other Poems." The follow- 
ing is his children's hymn (second and third stanzas omit- 
ted), on " The Day of Rest ": 

"Hail ! hallowed day of heavenly rest, 
To man in Eden given, — 
The day which the Creator hlessed, 
A type and pledge of heaven ! 

"And now a richer light is shed 
On thee, sweet day of grace ! 
Creation hides her lowly head, 
Before i-edemption's face. 

"We little children hail the day. 

Which breathes of peace and love, 
Which bids our toils and cares away, 
And tells of rest above. 

"We love the soothing Sabbath-bell; 
We love the house of prayer ; 
Sweet thoughts and hopes within us swell, 
Whilst we are gathered there. 

" Lord ! for thy day we bless thy name ; 
Thy law has made it sure. 
It stands from age to age the same. 
The birthright of the poor. 

" Oh! may these first-fruits of our time. 
These Sabbath-seasons, be 
Bright steps up which our souls may climb, 
Till they are safe in thee." 



NATHAN STEONG. 587 

NATHAN STRONG. 

1748-1816. 

De. Strong was a man of great energy, and of com- 
manding influence. His father, the Eev. Nathan Strong, 
D.D., was born at Woodbury, graduated at Yale College 
in 1742, and became, in 1745, the pastor of the Second Con- 
gregational Church of Coventry, Conn., where he died, Oc- 
tober 19, 1793. His mother was a native of Coventry, and 
the daughter of the Rev. Joseph Meacham, who was the 
pastor of the First Church of the town. 

He was born at Coventry, October 16, 1748. Educated, at 
the first, mostly at home, he entered Yale College in 1765, 
and graduated, with the first honor, in 1769. President 
Dwight, his classmate, was regarded as his equal in scholar- 
ship, but was his junior in years. He studied law for 
awhile, but soon abandoned it for the ministry. In 1772, 
he was appointed a Tutor in Yale College, and served one 
year. In the autumn of 1773, he accepted a call to be the 
pastor of the First Congregational Church of Hartford, 
Conn., as the successor of the Rev. Edward Dorr. He was 
ordained, January 5, 1774, and continued in that position 
to the end of life. 

He espoused the cause of his country, in the War of the 
Revolution, not only from his pulpit, and with his pen, 
but, for a season, as a chaplain in the army. After the 
war, he set himself, with all his might, to stem and beat 
back the floods of iniquity and infidelity that were, in con- 
sequence of that conflict, sweeping over the land. His 
preaching was plain, vigorous, pointed, and impressive. 
Both then, and throughout his ministry, he believed in, 
and labored for, " revivals of religion," and in at least four 
distinct instances his people were favored Avith the special 
effusion of tlie Holy Spirit, resulting in large accessions to 
the church. 

In the early part of 1796, appeared, from the New Lon- 



588 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

don press, a volume of 331 pages, entitled, — " Calvinism 
Improved ; or, The Gospel illustrated as a System of Real 
Grace, issuing in the Salvation of All Men. A Posthumous 
Work of the late Reverend Joseph Huntington, D.D., Min- 
ister of the First Church in Coventry, Connecticut." As a 
native of Coventry, and more as a minister of the true Gos- 
pel, Dr. Strong most effectually withstood and vanquished 
this plausible assailant. The very same year, he issued his 
celebrated and masterly work, entitled, — " The Doctrine of 
Eternal Misery Reconcileable with the Infinite Benevolence 
of God, and a Truth plainly asserted in the Christian 
Scrij)tures, By Nathan Strong, Pastor of the North Pres- 
byterian Church in Hartford." 

This was followed, in 1798, by a volume of " Sermons," 
the delivery of which in his own pulpit had been followed 
by a powerful revival of religion. It was this revival that 
gave birth to " The Hartford Selection of Hjrmns : Com- 
piled by Nathan Strong, Abel Flint, and Joseph Steward. 
Hartford, 1799," — the compilation of which devolved prin- 
cipally upon himself. For twenty-five years, this book had 
a very large circulation, and was very extensively used in 
the churches of New England, chiefiy as a Supplement to 
Dr. Watts' Psalms and H}^nns. It gradually gave i^lace 
to Dr. Nettleton's " Village"^ Hymns," of 1824. ' 

Another volume of " Sermons," in the same line with the 
previoiis one, was issued in 1800. The same year he orig- 
inated, and, in connection with a large number of associate 
editors, conducted. The Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, 
a monthly periodical in book form, of singular merit and 
adaptation to the needs of the time. It was continued for 
fifteen years. The following year (1801), he received the 
honorary degree of D.D., from the College of Nev/ Jersey, 
at Princeton. " The Connecticut Missionary Society," the 
pioneer Home Missionary Society of the age, was organized 
in 1798, mainly through his agency, and was principally 
directed by him until 1806. In the course of his ministry, 
he published several valuable occasional sermons. 

He was married, November 20, 1777, to the eldest daugh- 



NATHAN STRONG. 589 

ter of Br. Solomon Smith, of Hartford. She died, October 
17, 1784, leaving a son and a danghter. On the 20th of 
June, 1787, he married Anna McCurdy, of Lyme, Conn., 
who, after the birth of a son, died, March 22, 1789. He 
himself died, after a short, but painful, illness, December 
25, 1816, less than three weeks before his classmate. Presi- 
dent Dwight, of New Haven. 

Dr. Strong had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and 
abounded, especially in the early years of his ministry, in 
wit and humor. He was a most charming companion, and 
a devoted pastor, endearing himself greatly to his people. 
He labored assiduously as a joreacher, and his services were 
sought for, continually, on public occasions. His influence 
in public affairs was great and commanding. He was a 
keen observer of men, and exhibited a remarkable pene- 
tration in detecting character. His loss was deeply felt, 
especially in New England. 

His poetic efforts were limited to a few hymns, the most 
of which Avere published anonymously in the "Hartford 
Selection." Eight of these, with Dr. Strong's name at- 
tached, were transferred by Dr. Nettleton (1824), eight 
years after the author's death, to the "Village Hymns." 
They are theological more than poetical, and seem to have 
been written for use in revival meetings. One of them, 
entitled, " Christ revealed in a Soul slain by the Law," is 
subjoined : 

" Smote by the law I'm justly slain; 
Great God ! behold my case ; 
Pity a sinner filled with pain, 
Nor di'ive me from thy face. 

" Dread terrors fright my guilty soul; 
Thy justice, all in flames. 
Gives sentence on this heart so foul, 
So hard, so full of crimes. 

*' 'Tis trembling hardness that I feel; 
I feax', but can't relent, — 
Perhaps, of endless death the seal : 
Oh ! that I could repent ! 



THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

" My prayers, my tears, my vows are vile, 
My duties black with guilt ; 
On such a wretch can mercy smile, 
Though Jesus' blood was spilt ? 

" Speechless I sink to endless night, 
I see an opening hell ! — 
But, lo ! what glory strikes my sight ! 
Such glory who can tell ? 

" Enrapt in these bright beams of peace, 
I feel a gracious God:— 
Swell, swell the note ; — Oh ! tell his grace j 
Sound his high praise abroad." 



JOSEPH SWAIN. 

1761-1796. 

Mr. Swain was born (1761) at Birmingham, England. 
Left an orphan at an early age, he was apprenticed to an 
engraver. Before he came of age, he went up to London, 
and was led astray by bad company. Of a jovial disposi- 
tion, he composed songs and plays for the amusement of 
his comrades. Becoming alarmed at the thought of death, 
he bought a Bible, and, by its perusal, was led to embrace 
a Christian life. He was baptized. May 11, 1783, by the 
Rev. John Rijopon, D.D., and became an active member of 
the church. At length, he was induced to undertake the 
work of the ministry, and, in June, 1791, he took charge of 
a mission station in East Street, Walworth, near Surrey 
Gardens, London. A church was organized in December, 
of which he was ordained the pastor, February 8, 1792. 

He had, for several years, been writing spiritual songs, 
which he now published (1792) with the title, " Walworth 
Hymns," 192 in number. He abounded in labor, and his 
ministry was much prospered. In four years, his church 



WILLIAM BINGHAM TAPPAN. 591 

increased from 27 to 200 members, and the place of worship 
was tlirice enlarged. Of an infirm body, lie soon lost his 
health, and after a severe illness of a fortnight, he died in 
great peace, April 14, 1796, in his thirty-fifth year. 

After his decease, were published (1797) : " Redemption, a 
Poem, with a Life of the Author"; and "Experimental 
Essays on Divine Subjects," in verse. The following stan- 
zas are the last half of his hymn on " Praise for Conver- 
sion": 

' ' Sweet as angels' notes in heaven, 
When to golden harps they sound, 
Is the voice of sins forgiven, 
To the soul by Satan bound. 

" Sweet as angels' harps in glory. 
Was that heavenly voice to me. 
When I saw my Lord before me, 
Bleed and die to set me free. 

" Saints! attend with holy wonder; 
Sinners ! hear and smg his praise ; 
'Tis the God that holds the thunder. 
Shews himself the God of grace." 



WILLIAM BINGHAM TAPPAN. 

1794-1849. 

Me. Tappan was bom, October 29, 1794, at Beverly, 
Mass. His father, Samuel Tappan, was a teacher, and died 
when his son was only twelve years old. The latter served 
his time as an apprentice to a clock-maker, in Boston. 
When of age (1815) he found his way to Philadelphia, 
where he obtained employment in his trade. But the pur- 
suit was not congenial. His tastes were literary. As early 
as in his tenth year, he had written verse, and had continued 
ever since to cultivate the art. Leaving Philadelphia 
(1818), he took up his abode at Somerville, N. J., and de- 



592 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

voted liimself awhile to study ; after whicli lie returned to 
Philadelphia, and became a teacher. 

In 1819, he published his "New England, and other 
Poems "; and, in 1820, his " Songs of Judah, and other Melo- 
dies." He contributed (1822) several short pieces to Tlie 
Presbyter ian Magazine, and other periodicals. The same 
year (1822) he published a volume of "Lyrics"; and mar- 
ried Amelia, the daughter of Major Luther Colton, of Long 
Meadow, Mass. Relinquishing his vocation as a teacher, 
he took the position (1826) of Salesman and General Super- 
intendent of the Depository of the "American Sunday- 
School Union " (organized two years before) at Philadelphia, 
in whose service he continued to the end of life. He had 
charge of the S. S. DejDository, at Cincinnati, Ohio, from 
1829 to 1834, returning then to Philadelphia, where (1834) 
he published a fourth volume of Poems, and a fifth in 
1836. 

He removed to Boston, Mass., in 1838, and became the 
General Agent of the " American S. S. Union " for ISTew 
England. He published " The Poet's Tribute " in 1840, and 
" Poems and Lyrics " in 1842. In 1841, he obtained from a 
Congregational Association, license to preach, in order the 
more fully to carry forward his agency in his visits to the 
churches. In the intervals of official service, he took occa- 
sion to revise his publications, and republished them in 
five volumes: "Poetry of the Heart" (1845); "Sacred and 
Miscellaneous Poems" (1846); "Poetry of Life" (1847); 
"The Sunday - School, and other Poems" (1848); and 
" Late and Early Poems " (1849). While preparing another 
volume for the press, he fell a victim to epidemic cholera, 
June 18, 1849, at West Needham, Mass. Among his pub- 
lications was "Memoirs of Captain James Wilson." 

The following closing stanzas of his Hymn on "Wor- 
ship " are a fitting sequel to this sketch : 

" 'Tis ours to sojourn in a waste, 

Barren and cold as Shinar's ground ; 
No fruits of Eslicol charm the taste, 
No streams of Meribah are found ; 



NAHUM TATE. 503 

But thou canst bid the desert bud 

With more than Sharon's rich display ; 

And thou canst bid the coolmg flood 

Gush from the rock, and cheer the way. 

■ We tread the path thy people trod, 

Alternate sunshine, bitter tears ; 
Go thou before, and with thy rod 

Divide the Jordan of our fears : 
Be ours the song of triumph given — 

Angelic themes to lips of clay ; 
And ours the holy harp of heaven, 

Whose strain dissolves the soul away." 



NAHUM TATE. 
1652-1715. 

The " New Version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the 
Tunes used in Churches," by "N. Brady, D.D., ChajDlain 
in Ordinary, and N. Tate, Esq., Poet Laureate to his Maj- 
esty," was authorized in 1696. An Appendix of 22 hynms 
was added in 1703. 

The " Old Version," by Sternhold, Hopkins, and others, 
of the previous century, having become antiquated, and 
distasteful to scholarly worshippers, the "New Version" 
was undertaken by Tate and Brady, and twenty Psalms, as 
specimens, were published in 1695. On the completion of 
the whole Psalter, the work was submitted to the Bishop 
of London (Henry Compton, D.I).), and, having been ap- 
proved, the Royal Permission for its publication was given 
in the words following : 

"At the Court at Kensington, December the 3d, 1696, 
present the King's most excellent Majesty in Council. 

" Upon the humble petition of N. Brady and N. Tate, 
this day read at the Board, setting forth, that the petition- 
ers have, with their utmost care and industry, completed a 
38 



594 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

new Version of tlie Psalms of David in English metre fitted 
for public use, and humbly i^raying his Majesty's Royal 
Allowance, that the said Version may be used in such con- 
gregations, as shall think fit to receive it : 

" His Majesty, taking the same into his Royal considera- 
tion, is pleased to order in Council, that the said new Ver- 
sion of Psalms in English metre be, and the same is hereby, 
allowed and permitted to be used in all such Churches, 
Chapels, and Congregations, as shall think fit to receive the 
same." 

Thus sanctioned, the New Version gradually supplanted 
the Old, and is still regarded as the authorized Psalmody 
of the Church of England, having been, for nearly two 
centuries, printed with the Book of Common Prayer. The 
part taken by the comjDilers in the preparation of the work 
has never been divulged. But, as Tate was at the time the 
Poet Laureate, he has ordinarily been credited with the 
principal share of the translation, and with the revision of 
the whole. 

Nahum Tate was the son of the Rev. Faithful Teate, 
D.D., a native of County Cavan, Ireland, a graduate of the 
University of Dublin, minister of Ballyhays, and then of 
St. Werburgh's, Dublin— an author and a poet of consider- 
able repute, in the days of the Commonwealth, and of 
Charles II. The son was born in Dublin in 1652 ; was matric- 
ulated at the University in 1668 ; and, after his graduation, 
made his way to London and entered on a literary career. 

He published, in 1677, a volume of " Poems writ on sev- 
eral Occasions"; in 168.5, a compilation of "Poems by sev- 
eral Hands, and on several Occasions "; in 1686, " Memorials 
for the Learned, collected out of Eminent Authors in His- 
tory"; in 1691, "Characters of Virtue and Vice Described 
and Attempted in Verse, from a Treatise of Joseph Hall, 
Bishop of Exon." The next year (1692) he succeeded 
Thomas Shadwell as Poet Laureate. He had written 
eight Plays, partly borrowed from other writers, and ex- 
hibiting but little originality. 

In 1693, he published a "Present for the Ladies"; in 



NAHUM TATE. 595 

1694, a "Poem on Promotion"; in 1695, an "Elegy on 
Archbishop Tillotson"; also, the same year (mth Dr. Bra- 
dy), "Twenty Psalms," and an "Elegy on Queen Mary"; 
in 1698, " Miscellanea Sacra, or Poems on Divine and Moral 
Subjects"; also (with Dr. Brady) the "New Version of 
the Psalms of David," by which his name has been im- 
mortalized ; in 1699, "Elegies"; in 1700, "Panacea, a Po- 
em on Tea"; in 1705, "The Triumph"; and, in 1710, an 
"Essay for Promoting Psalmody." 

Having lived, lor the most part, an improvident life, he 
died, deeply in debt, at his house, near the Mint, South- 
wark, August 12, 1715. "He possessed," says Taylor, in 
his History of the University of Dublin, "considerable 
learning, joined to a good share of wit, and very agreeable 
manners ; but he was too modest to push himself into those 
situations to which his merit fairly entitled him." 

His poetry was a great improvement on that which had 
so long maintained its place in the devotions of the Church. 
Though seldom rising to sublimity, it rarely falls below me- 
diocrity. Some of it is very inspiring. Among the better 
specimens is to be ranked his version of the 112th Psalm ; 

' ' That man is blessed, who stands in awe 
Of God, and loves his sacred law ; 
His seed on earth shall be renowned 
And with successive honors cro^vned. 
His house the seat of wealth shall be, 
An inexhausted treasury ; 
His justice, free from all decay, 
Shall blessings to his heirs convey. 
The soul that 's filled with virtue's light 
Shines brightest in affliction's night. 
To pity the distressed inclined, 
As well as just to all mankind. 
His liberal favors he extends, 
To some he gives, to others lends , 
Yet what his charity impairs 
He saves by prudence in affau'S. 
Beset with threatening dangers round, 
Unmoved shall he maintain his ground; 
The sweet remembrance of the just 
Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust. 



696 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Ill-tidings never can surprise 

His heart that, fixed, on God relies; 

On safety's rock he sits, and sees 

The shipwreck of his enemies. 

His hands, while they his alms bestowed, 

His glory's future harvest sowed ; 

Whence he shall reap wealth, fame, renown, 

A temp'ral and eternal crown. 

The wicked shall his triumph see, 

And gnash their teeth in agony, 

While their unrighteous hopes decay, 

And vanish with themselves away." 



ANN TAYLOR. 
175S-1830. 

Mrs. Taylor's maiden name was Ann Martin. She was 
born in 1758, and was the daughter of a London tradesman. 
He died in 1764, and she was left an oi-phan. Her mother 
had died in her infancy. 

Though deprived of both parents at so early an age, 
she was well educated. She connected herself, in youth, 
with the Independent Church, worshipping in Fetter-Lane, 
under the pastoral care of the Rev. James Webb. Her 
" somewhat extraordinary talent in poetical composition " 
attracted the attention and love of Mr. Isaac Taylor, a 
member of the same churcli, a young artist, and the son of 
Mr. Isaac Taylor, a well-known engraver. They were united 
in marriage (1781), and lived five years in Red Lion Street, 
Holborn, London. They then removed to Lavenham, Suf- 
folk, a picturesque place, sixty-two miles from London. 

Her daughter Ann was born in 1782, was married (1813) 
to Rev. Joseph Gilbert, and died in 1866. Her second 
daughter, Jane, was born in 1783, and died in 1823. Tliese 
two sisters became renowned and useful as writers, princi- 
pally for children and youth. [See Jane Taylor.] Her 



ANN TAYLOR. 597 

elder son, Isaac, was born in 1787, and became an illustrious 
author and philosopher, dying in 1865. Her younger son, 
Jeffreys, born in 1793, also became a learned writer, and 
died in 1853. Seldom has any mother been more signally 
honored in her children. Their training engrossed her at- 
tention and tasked her energies, during the earlier period 
of her married life, more especially during the ten years of 
their residence at Lavenham, and the fifteen years of their 
subsequent abode at Colchester. 

In 1796, Mr. Taylor devoted himself to the work of the 
ministry, and accepted a call to the pastoral charge of a 
Dissenting congregation at Colchester, in Essex. In 1811, 
he accepted the charge of a congregation at Chipping On- 
gar, also in Essex, where he continued until his death, De- 
cember 11, 1829. 

Mrs. Taylor began to write for the press, after their re- 
moval to Ongar. Early in 1814, she published " Maternal 
Solicitude for a Daughter's Best Interests," — a volume that 
was well received, and that has been frequently republished, 
as Avell as translated into French. This was followed by 
"Advice to Mothers." The next year (1815), appeared her 
"Practical Hints to Young Females." In 1817, she pub- 
lished, in connection wdth her daughter Jane, " Correspond- 
ence between a Mother and her Daughter at School." She 
issued, in 1822, a "Present of a Mistress to a Young Serv- 
ant"; and, subsequently, "The Family Mansion, a Tale"; 
"Retrospection, a Tale"; and "Reciprocal Duties of Par- 
ents and Children." These works were written, in part, to 
beguile her long years of " perpetual and severe bodily suf- 
ferings." The death of her husband hastened her own. 
She died. May 27, 1830, surviving him but a few months. 

Her hymn, 

" There is a dear and hallowed spot," etc., 
was contributed by her in 1812 to TTie YouWs Magazine. 



598 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

JANE TAYLOR. 
1783-1824. 

That talent freqiiently comes by inheritance, is confirmed 
by the history of the Taylor family, of which Jane was so 
bright an ornament. Her grandfather, Isaac Taylor, was 
an eminent engraver of London, in the reigns of George 
II. and George III. He trained his two sons, Charles [1756- 
1821] and Isaac [1759-1829], to his own profession, and 
both of them became proficients in their art. Charles is 
kno-vvn as the English Editor and Illnstrator of Calmet's 
"Dictionary of the Holy Bible" [1797-1801], in which he 
was aided greatly by his younger brother, Isaac, the father 
of Jane. 

Isaac married Ann Martin, a lady of superior endow- 
ments, who was herself the author of several excellent 
publications. [See Anx Taylor.] Their children, Ann, 
Jane, Isaac, and Jeffreys, all distinguished themselves in 
the literary world. Ann [1782-1866] married the Rev. Jo- 
seph Gilbert, first of Hull and then of Nottingham, and 
was associated with her younger sister, Jane, in most of 
her publications. Isaac [1787-1865] was the author of " The 
Natural History of Enthusiasm," " Saturday Evening," " En- 
thusiasm," and a large number of vigorous works on relig- 
ious themes. Jeffreys [1793-1853], though not as eminent 
as his brother, wrote, mostly for the young, a dozen books, 
in prose and verse. 

Jane Taylor was born, September 23, 1783, at her father's 
residence, Red Lion Street, Holborn, London. Three years 
afterwards, Mr. Taylor's engagements as an artist allowed 
him, while prosecuting his business in London, to remove 
with his family to Lavenham, a picturesque town in Suf- 
folk. Here they resided for ten years, and the sisters, 
favorably situated for the cultivation of the poetic spirit, 
very early began to amuse themselves and their friends by 
their compositions in verse. Some of Jane's verses were 



JANE TAYLOR. 699 

written as early as her eighth year. The education of the 
sisters was conducted mostly by their father, who, also, 
gave them instruction in his own handicraft, so that they 
might have the means of self-support in after life. 

Mr. Taylor had gradually addicted himself, in his pious 
propensity for doing good, to the work of preaching the 
Gospel in the villages round about. Early in 1796, he 
accepted a call to be the pastor of a Dissenting congrega- 
tion in the populous town of Colchester, Essex, fifty miles 
from London, and was ordained to the ministry. Here, for 
fifteen years, the sisters practiced their art, aiding their 
father materially in both sketching and engraving for the 
works that he issued to please and instruct the young. In 
1802, Jane, for the first time since her infancy, visited the 
metropolis, and formed many valuable acquaintances. 

Her first contribution to the press was "Tlie Beggar 
Boy," a sprightly ditty of eleven four-line stanzas, which 
appeared in "The Minor's Pocket-Book for 1804." The 
sisters became regular contributors to this serial. In 180*"), 
they ventured to send their first volume to the press, en- 
titled, " Original Poems for Infant Minds, by Several Young 
Persons." It was republished, soon after, in America, and, 
in a translation, both in Germany and Holland. The year 
following, a second volume of " Original Poems," and 
" Rhymes for the Nursery," met with like favor. The 
contributions of the two sisters to these volumes are not 
distinguishable. 

In 1810, Jane contributed several short poems to Josiah 
Conder's "Associate Minstrels." The sisters, soon after, 
issued a volume of " Original Hymns for the Use of Chil- 
dren," followed by "Original Hymns for Sunday- Schools." 
In September, 1811, the family removed to Ongar, Essex, 
Mr. Taylor having resigned his charge at the close of 1810, 
and having now accepted a call to Ongar. Jane abandoned 
her occupation as an artist, and devoted herself to litera- 
ture. The winter months of 1812 and 1813 were spent with 
her invalid brother Isaac, at Ilfracombe, Devonshire ; and 
the two succeeding years at Marazion, Cornwall. Here she 



600 THE POETS OE THE CHURCH. 

numbered among her intimate friends, Anne, the only 
daughter of the Rev. Dr. Maxwell, of Bath, and subse- 
quently the wife of the gifted Rev. Henry Francis Lyte ; 
also. Miss Greenfell, the betrothed of Henry Martyn. 

During her sojourn in the West of England, she occu- 
pied her spare time in writing her " Display, a Tale," which 
appeared late in 1814. Her "Essays in Rhyme, on Morals 
and Manners," written at Marazion, followed in 1816. In 
February, 1816, at the solicitation of the conductors of 
the YouWs Magazine, she commenced her contributions 
to that periodical, and continued them during seven years. 
After her death they were collected by her brother Isaac, 
and published, in two volumes, as " The Contributions of 
Q. Q. to a Periodical Work." 

After a short visit to her sister Ann (who, in 1813, had mar- 
ried Mr. Gilbert, and removed to Masborough, near Rother- 
ham, Yorkshire), she returned, August, 1816, after a three 
years' absence, to her home in Ongar. She now engaged, 
with her mother, in the composition of a " Correspondence 
between a Mother and her Daughter at School," which was 
published the following year, having been completed at 
Hastings, Sussex, where she spent the succeeding winter. 
Shortly after her return to Ongar, in the summer of 1817, 
she made a profession of her faith in Christ, connecting 
herself with her father's church. To this event is assigned 
her hymn, 

" Come, my fond fluttering heart! " etc. 

A slow and fatal disease had shown itself, under which 
her health gradually gave Avay. Frequent journeys were 
undertaken and visits made to friends, year by year, with- 
out permanent relief. As far as her strength allowed, she 
engaged in works of piety and benevolence. In July, 1823, 
her uncle. Rev. James Hinton, died, and in November, her 
father's brother, Charles, followed. These bereavements 
deeply impressed her with the belief of her own approach- 
ing end. Fully prepared for the change, she calmly and 



JOHN TAYLOR. 601 

hopefully awaited tlie hour of her departure, which occurred 
only a few months later, — April 12, 1824, 

She wrote (1823), the year before her decease, a hymn of 
twelve stanzas, on " The Things that are Unseen and Eter- 
nal," from which the following stanzas are taken : 

*' The Saviour whom I long have sought, 
And would, but can not see, — 
And is he here ! Oh ! wondrous thought ! 
And will he dwell with me? 

" I ask not with my mortal eye 
To view the vision bright ; 
I dare not see thee, lest I die ; 
Yet, Lord ! restore my sight I 

" Give me to see thee, and to feel 
The mental vision clear ; 
The things unseen reveal — reveal, 
And let me know them near. 

*' Illume this shadowy soul of mine, 
That still in darloiess lies ; 
Oh ! let the light in darkness shine. 
And bid the day-star rise. 

" Impart the faith, that soars on high 
Beyond this earthly strife. 
That holds sweet converse with the sky. 
And lives eternal life." 



JOHN TAYLOR. 

1694-1761. 

Dr. John Tayloe was distinguished, in the former part 
of the last century, as a theological writer, and an Arian 
divine. He was born, in 1694, at or near Lancaster, Eng- 
land. He was educated at "Whitehaven, under the instruc- 



602 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tion, principally, of Dr. Dixon. In 1715, lie was appointed 
to the Chapel of Kirkstead, Lincolnshire, an obscure posi- 
tion, with a very small salary, where he remained, as 
preacher and teacher, for eighteen years. In the mean- 
time, he became a diligent student of the Scriptures in the 
original tongues. In 1733, he was chosen the pastor of the 
Presbyterian congregation of ]S"orwich, having become a 
convert to the views expressed in Dr. Samuel Clarke's 
" Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity." 

In 1736, he published "A Prefatory Discourse to Mr. 
Joseph Rawson's Case"; and, in 1740, his " Scriptural Doc- 
trine of Original Sin proposed to Free and Candid Exami- 
nation," with a "Supplement" in 1741. This work pro- 
voked an extensive controversy, in which John Wesley and 
Jonathan Edwards took part. In 1745, he issued his elab- 
orate " Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans ; to which is prefixed A Key to the Apostolic Writ- 
ings, or an Essay to explain the Gospel Scheme, and the 
Principal Words and Phrases the Apostles have used in 
describing it." The "Key" was reprinted in the third 
volume of Bishop Watson's Tlieological Tracts, as " the 
best Introduction to the Epistles, and the clearest Account 
of the whole Gospel Scheme, which was ever written"; 
while Archbishop Magee, on the other hand, declares " it 
is nothing more than an artificial accommodation of Scrip- 
ture Phrases to notions utterly repugnant to Christian 
doctrine. " 

" The Scripture Doctrine of Atonement " followed in 
1750. The first volume of his " Hebrew Concordance 
adapted to the English Bible," " after the manner of Bux- 
torf," appeared in 1754, and the second, in 1757, — a work of 
great labor and learning, for which he received, from the 
University of Glasgow, the honorary degree of D.D. In 
1757, he became the Principal of the Academy, just estab- 
lished by the Arians in the North of England, at Warring- 
ton, Lancashire. His remaining publications were two 
pamphlets, one of which was " A Sketch of Moral Philos- 
ophy " for the use of his class. His " Scheme of Scripture 



JOHN TAYLOE. 603 

Divinity " was published after his death, by his eldest son, 
Richard Taylor, of Norwich (1762). It is reprinted as 
the first Article in Vol. I. of Bishop Watson's "Theolog- 
ical Tracts." . , . . i,r i ^ 

He died, without premonition, on the night of March 5, 
1761 and his remains were buried at Kirkstead. On his 
tombstone is inscribed,-" Expect no Eulogium from this 
Stone. Enquire amongst the Friends of Learning, Liberty, 
and Truth ; these will do him justice." 

The poetry of Mr. Taylor, while careful in statement, and 
exact in rhythm, is lacking in warmth. The following 
hymn is one of his best : 

"Father of our feeble race, 

Wise, beneficent, and kind ! 
Spread o'er nature's ample face, 

Flows thy goodness unconfined: 
Musing in the silent grove. 

Or the busy walks of men, 
Still we trace thy wondrous love. 

Claiming large returns again. 

" Lord! what offeruags shall we bring, 

At thuie altars when we bow ? 
Hearts, the pure unsullied spring. 

Whence the kind affections flow ;— 
Soft compassion's feeling soul. 

By the melting eye expressed;— 
Sympathy, at whose control. 

Sorrow leaves the wounded breast; — 

" Willing hands, to lead the blind, 

Heal the wounded, feed the poor;— 
Love, embracing all our kind ; — 

Charity, with liberal store : 
Teach us, O thou heavenly King ! 

Thus to show our grateful mind, — 
Thus th' accepted offering bring,— 

Love to thee and all mankind." 



604 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

THOMAS RAWSON TAYLOR. 

1807-1835. 

Thomas Rawson Taylor was the grandson of Andrew 
Taylor, a farmer, of Humbleton, Nortliumberland, Eng- 
land. His father, Thomas (1768-1853), entered the minis- 
try in 1799, and took charge of a Dissenting congregation 
at Ossett, Yorkshire. He married Mary, the daughter of L. 
W. Rawson, of Leeds. Thomas was their eldest son, and 
was born at Ossett, May 9, 1807. In February, 1808, Mr. 
Taylor took charge of the Congregational Church of Brad- 
ford, a large manufacturing town, near Leeds, and here the 
son spent his boyhood. 

"He was a docile, affectionate, and home-loving child." 
He attended the grammar-school at Bradford from the age 
of seven to eleven years, when he was sent to Dr. Clunie's 
Academy, at Manchester. At fifteen (1822), he entered a mer- 
chant's counting-house as clerk ; but, the next year (1823), 
he became an apprentice to Mr. Dunn, a printer, at ]N"ot- 
tingham,— a devout man, in whose family his religious 
inclinations were greatly strengthened. At the end of 
three years, by the cheerful consent of Mr. Dunn, he gave 
up his occupation, and entered Airedale College as a stu- 
dent for the ministry. During his four years of prepara- 
tory study, he frequently preached in the neighboring vil- 
lages, with great acceptance and much success. 

In July, 1830, he became the minister of Howard Street 
Chapel in Sheffield, the home of the poet Montgomery. 
Pulmonary disease had already developed itself in his frail 
system, and soon interrupted his labors. During the next 
two years, he was not able to preach more than one fourth 
of the time ; and, at the close of this period, he was com- 
pelled to resign his charge. He now (1833) returned to 
Bradford, and, as far as his failing health allowed, he as- 
sisted his father, in the pulpit. For a short time, the fol- 
lowing year, he occupied the position of classical tutor at 



GERHAED TERSTEEGEN. 605 

Airedale College. Gradually lie sunk, and wasted away, 
until March 15, 1835, when his beautiful life peacefully 
ended. 

In 1836, were published his " Memoirs and Select Re- 
mains," by W. S. Mathews ; also a volume of his " Sermons 
i:)reached in Howard Street Chapel, Sheffield." A second 
edition of his " Memoirs," etc., " with an Introduction by 
James Montgomery, Esq.," appeared in 1842. His poetic 
" Remains " give abundant evidence of high culture and 
promise in the divine art. The story of his life gives lustre 
to his sweet hymn, 

"I'm but a stranger here," etc., 

and to the lovely sonnet from his pen, here subjoined : 

" Oh ! just when thou shalt please would I depart. 
My Father and my God ! I would not choose, 
Ev'n if I might, the moment to unloose 
The bonds which bind my weak and worthless heart 
From its bright home. So I but have a part, 
However humble, there, it matters not. 
Or long, or short, my pilgrimage, — my lot 
Joyful or joyless, — if the flowers may start 
Where'er I tread, or thorns obstruct my path, 
I look not at the present ; many years 
Are but so many moments, though of tears ; 
My soul's bright home a lovelier aspect hath ; 
And if it surely shall be mine — and then 
For ever mine — it mattei-s little when ! " 



GERHARD TERSTEEGEN. 

1697-1769. 

Gerhakd Tersteegew was born, November 25, 1697, in 
the town of Mors, near Diisseldorf, Germany. His father, 
who died soon after the son's birth, was a respectable 



606 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tradesman, of the Kef ormed faith. Gerhard was the young- 
est of eight childi-en, and was carefully educated at the 
grammar-school of Mors, where he became acquainted with 
the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, showing great 
proficiency. He was of a feeble frame, of a scrupulous con- 
science, and religiously inclined. 

At the age of fifteen (1712), he was bound as an appren- 
tice to an elder brother, a shopkeeper, at Miihlheim, on the 
Ruhr. Through the influence mainly of a pious tradesman, 
with whom he here became acquainted, he was led, at the 
age of sixteen, to devote himself to the service of God. He 
gave himself to fasting, and to prayer by night, while his 
days were occupied with work. 

Coming of age, he determined to leave his occupation for 
one of greater retirement. He obtained a humble cottage 
near Miihlheim, where he lived, on the simplest diet, the life 
of a recluse, supporting himself by weaving silk ribbons. 
He greatly enjoyed his seclusion ; " I often thought," he 
said, " no king in the world could live so contentedly as I 
did at that time." A period of spiritual darkness, grow- 
ing, in some measure, out of the austerities of his mode of 
life, and continuing the greater part of five years, followed, 
— as described in a hymn written at this time, of which a 
translation is found in Miss Winkworth's "Lyra Ger- 
manica," Vol. II., beginning with 

"Jesus, pitying Saviour ! hear me." 
["Jesu, mein Erbarmer ! hore."] 

He was delivered at length from the bondage of doubt, 
on which occasion he wi'ote, with his own blood, a remark- 
able self -dedication to his divine Redeemer. The following 
year (1725), he terminated his seclusion, by admitting a 
young friend, Heinrich Sommer, to live with him, and 
share in his daily labor at the loom. He still devoted two 
hours daily to private devotion, and gave much time to re- 
ligious composition, in poetry and prose. Miihlheim having 
been favored (1727) with a remarkable revival of religion. 



GERHAED TERSTEEGEN. 607 

he was induced, at thirty years of age, to make occasional 
addresses at private religious meetings. So acceptable and 
useful were his instructions, that he shortly relinquished 
his ribbon-weaving, and devoted himself to the work of 
spiritual instruction, orally and with his pen, and to the 
care of the sick and poor. 

He now became the spiritual adviser and instructor of 
multitudes. A small income was provided for him by 
friends. A more suitable abode was obtained for the ac- 
commodation of visitors, who, in great numbers, resorted 
to him for spiritual and medical advice from all quarters. 
A dispensary was connected with it, and it became widely 
known as "The Pilgrim's Cottage." Here too he held 
public religious services, ordinarily to as many as the 
house could hold. He conducted a wide correspondence, 
and occasionally journeyed abroad on his pious errands. 
Thirty years (1727-1757) were thus almost incessantly oc- 
cupied, and a vast amount of good was done, principally 
among the humbler classes. He accomplished it all in the 
midst of great physical debility, with frequent attacks of 
severe ilhiess and neuralgic distress. He was held in great 
reverence and affection, but never appeared to seek the ap- 
plause or favor of men. Humble, modest, gentle, and un- 
assuming, often wholly absorbed in communion with the 
spirit-world, he lived a life of continual self-sacrifice and 
eminent godliness. 

At the age of sixty-one (1758), an internal injury result- 
ing from over-exertion in public speaking, brought him 
apparently near to the grave, and compelled him, on his 
partial recovery, to relinquish everything like preaching 
and public exhorting, and to confine himself to private con- 
versation and correspondence. This he continued to the 
end of life, toiling on, greatly emaciated, and full of suffer- 
ings. At length, he was afflicted with dropsy, which termi- 
nated his course, April 3, 1769, in his seventy-second year. 

He wrote 111 li^onns, the most of which appeared in his 
" Spiritual Flower Gfarden." They are of a superior order, 
both of poetry and devotion. They pertain mostly to the 



608 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

school of Mystics, of which their author was regarded as 
the greatest poet. His " Spiritual Crumbs " is a collection 
of sermons and addresses, taken in short-hand ; of which 
an English translation has gone through several editions. 
His " Works " were i3ublished (1846) in eight volumes. A 
volume entitled, — " The Life and Character of Gerhard Ter- 
steegen, with Extracts from his Letters and Writings, 
translated from the German by Samuel Jackson," was is- 
sued (1832) at London. 



THEODORE [STUDITES]. 

759-826. 

Theodore, of the Studium — so called because he was the 
Abbot of the monastery of Studium, built by the Consul 
Studius, in the suburbs of Constantinople — was born in 759, 
and, after he attained to the priesthood, distinguished him- 
self for his zeal in behalf of the worship of images. He was 
a brother of Joseph, the Archbishop of Thessalonica, and 
lived in the reigns of the Emperors Constantine Coprony- 
mus, Leo IV., and Constantine VI., the Empress Irene, and 
the Emperors Nicephorus I., Michael Curopalates, Leo of 
Armenia, and Michael Balbus. 

Theodore came into notice in the reign of Constantine VI., 
who, under the pretext that his wife Mary had sought to 
poison him, put her away (795) and married Theodecta, a 
maid of honor to his mother Irene. Theodore denounced 
the whole transaction. When Leo, the Armenian, called a 
council at Constantinople (814), in opposition to the wor- 
ship of images, Theodore Studites and his party took the 
ground, that doctrinal controversies were not to be dis- 
cussed in the palace, but in the church. At a subsequent 
council (816) Theodore used such violent language against 
the Emperor and the Iconoclast bishops and monks, that 
he was sent into exile ; but, being still unsubdued, he was 



THEODULPH [OF ORLEANS], 609 

sent to prison, where, as the monks of his party represented, 
he suffered great hardships and cruelties. He died, in exile, 
at Chalcis, in the island of Eiiboea, Greece, November 11, 
826. He wrote a number of hymns for the Rituals of the 
Grreek Church. 



THEODULPH [OF ORLEANS]. 

821. 

More than a thousand years have passed since the hymn, 

"Gloria, laus, et honor tibi sit, Kex Christe Redemptor ! " 

["All glory, laud, and honor to thee, Redeemer, King! " 

— Tr. J. M, Neale.] 

was written, during all which time it has been extensively 
sung in the Latin Church, on Palm Sunday. Theodulph, 
its author, was born in Cisalpine Gaul, and was invited, 
about 781, to the court of the Emperor Charlemagne. He 
was preferred, by imperial favor, to the Abbey of Fleury, 
and, about 793, to the bishopric of Orleans, as the succes- 
sor of Guitbert. He restored the ancient strictness of dis- 
cipline in his diocese, and founded schools for the educa- 
tion of his people. He continued in favor with Charle- 
magne until his death (814), and was highly esteemed by 
his son and successor, Louis le Debonnaire, who employed 
him at court. He was sent to attend Pope Stephen on his 
journey from Rome to Rheims (816) for the coronation of 
the Emperor. Two years later (818), he was suspected of 
complicity in the revolt of Bernard, the King of Italy, 
against his uncle Louis, and, though protesting his inno- 
cence, he was deprived of his benefices, and imprisoned in 
the monastery of Angers, where it is thought that he died 
about 821. 
It is related hj Clichtoveus (1519), that the hymn, Qoted 
39 



610 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

above, was composed by Theodulpli, in the prison at An- 
gers in 818 ; and that the Emperor, on Palm Sunday of 
that year, took part in the procession of the day at Angers ; 
and that as the procession passed the x)i'ison, Theodulph 
sang his hymn, with such effect, as to procure from the 
Emperor a mandate for his liberty and restoration to his 
former honors. But it is certain that Louis was not at 
Angers at that time, and there is no evidence that Theo- 
dulph was restored to office. 

Among the numerous works from his pen, published by 
Sirmond (1646) at Paris, are six books of " Songs," and ten 
Poems. 



THOMAS [DE CELANO]. 

No hymn of the Church of the Middle Ages has so gen- 
erally commended itself to the admiration of the learned 
and the devout as 

' ' Dies irse ! dies ilia ! " 
[" That day of wrath, that dreadfiil day."— Tr. W. Scott.] 

Poets have vied with scholars of every grade and national- 
ity in its praises. Sir Walter Scott, whose version of a 
part of it, taken from his " Lay of the Last Minstrel," is 
noted above, expressed for it unbounded admiration. Dean 
Milman said : " There is nothing, in my judgment, to be 
compared with the monkish ' Dies irse ! dies ilia ! ' " Albert 
Knapp, the hymnologist, compares it to a blast from the 
trump of the resurrection. Dean Trench declares that its 
" merits have given the Dies Tree a foremost place among 
the master-pieces of sacred song." Mrs. Charles speaks of 
" the solemn and magnificent chant of the great medieeval 
hymn, 'the Dies Irse.' " Daniel, in his "Thesaurus Hymn- 
ologicus," says, " that, by universal consent, it is regarded 
as the highest ornament of sacred poetry, and the most 
precious treasure of the Latin Church." 



THOMAS [DE CELANO]. 611 

The Poets of all Christian countries of the world have 
sought to give an exact translation, in their own vernacular, 
of this incomparable production. Dr. Lisco (1840), in a learn- 
ed monogram on the " Dies Irse," reproduces seventy trans- 
lations, mostly into German ; and, three years later, seven- 
teen more. The French versions are numerous, and the 
English, almost numberless. But, as in all similar cases, 
no translation can express the force, the sublimity, and the 
awful grandeur of the majestic original. Knapp affirms 
that its original power is inimitable in any translation. 
So say all the critics. 

It is a hymn of eighteen three-line stanzas, after the fol- 
lowing pattern : 

"Dies irse, dies Qla! 
Solvet S3eclum in favilla, 
Teste David cum Sybilla. 

" Quantus tremor est futurus, 

^ Quaudo Judex est venturus, 

Cuncta stricte discussurus." 

Great doubts have been entertained, among the learned 
in such matters, as to its authorship. Some have ascribed 
it to the great Bernard ; others to Gregory, the Great. It 
has, however, been satisfactorily traced to the thirteenth 
century, and to the Order of Minorites, or Franciscans, as 
they are commonly called. Bartholomew, of Pisa, as early 
as 1401, ascribes it to Thomas de Celano, the author of the 
Life of St. Francis. Lucas Wadding, in his "Annales 
Minorum, sive trium Ordinum a S. Francisco instituto- 
rum" (Lyons, 1625-1648), explicitly, and without hesita- 
tion, includes this hymn among the writings of Thomas de 
Celano. Of those who accede to this high authority may 
be named, Mohnike, Rambach, Fink, Gieseler, Tholuck, 
Lisco, Daniel, and Knapp. Trench and Mone regard the 
proof as insufficient. 

The weight of authority favors greatly the claims of 
Thomas de Celano. He is so called, from Celano, a town 
on the borders of Lake Fucino, Abruzzo Ultra, Italy. The 



612 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

date of liis birtti is unknown, but must be assigned to the 
latter part of tlie twelfth century. He was one of tlie first 
to attach himself to the Order of Minor Friars, founded 
(1208) by Francis of Assisi. He was put in charge, suc- 
cessively, of the Franciscan Convents of Worms, Metz, and 
Cologne ; and made Custos of the Rhine District of the 
Order. Francis died in 1226, and was canonized in 1230, 
Returning, at this latter date, to Assisi, Thomas, by ap- 
pointment of the Fojye, Gregory IX., wrote the Life of St. 
Francis, the manuscript of which is said to be in the keep- 
ing of the Cistercian monastery at Languepont, Soissons. 
Nothing further is known of him, not even the date of his 
death 



ALEXANDER RAMSAY THOMPSON. 



The Rev. Dr. Thompson is a native of New York City, 
a son of Col. Alexander R. Thompson (1792-1837), and was 
born in 1822. He graduated (1842) at the University of 
the City of New York, and studied theology at Princeton 
Seminary, N. J., finishing his course in 1845. Tlie same 
year, he was licensed by the Second Presbytery of New 
York, and preached awhile, as an assistant to the Rev. 
Jacob Brodhead, D.D., the pastor of the Central Reformed 
Dutch Church of Brooklyn, N. Y., and then to the Rev. 
Thomas Macauley, D.D., the pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church in Eighth Street, Astor Place, New York. 

Having received a call from the First Presbyterian 
Church of Morristown, N. J., he was ordained, January 10, 
1846, by the Presbytery of Elizabethtown. After a pastor- 
ate of less than two years, he was dismissed from his charge 
and undertook (1848) the gathering of a church at Bedford, 
in East Brooklyn, N. Y. ; but, at the close of the year, he be- 
came the pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church of Tomp- 



ALEXANDER EAMSAY THOMPSON. 613 

kinsville, Staten Island, N. Y., where lie continued three 
years. He took charge, in 1851, of the Reformed Dutch 
Church of Stapleton, Staten Island, N. Y., and remained 
seven years. He served (1859-1862) as Stated Supply of 
the Second Congregational Church of Bridgeport, Conn. ; 
and, in 1862, became the associate pastor of St. Paul's Re- 
formed Dutch Church, IN'ew York City, then worshiping 
in Twenty-first Street, and later in a new structure on 
j^'ortieth Street. At the decease of the senior pastor, the 
Rev. George W. Bethune, D.D., the same year, he became 
the sole pastor. In 1874, he accepted a call from the North 
Reformed Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. The honorary degree 
of D.D. was conferred on him in 1873. 

Besides contributions to various periodicals, he has pub- 
lished an "Address at the Funeral of S. R. Smith, D.D." 
(1852), and a " Tribute to the Memory of Rev. George W. 
Bethune, D.D." (1862). He was also a member of the Com- 
mittee of the General Synod that prepared, for the denomi- 
nation, the " Hymns of the Church, with Tunes," approved 
and authorized for use in the Church, June, 1869, — to 
which he contributed the hymn, 

" Wayfarers in the wilderness," etc., 

and five others, mostly translations from the Latin. One 
of his best is a translation of Ambrose's 

" Aurora coelum purpurat," etc., 

of which the first four stanzas are here subjoined : 

' ' The morning' purples all the sky, 

The air with praises rings, 

Defeated hell stands sullen hy, 

The world exulting sings: 

' ' While he, the King, all strong to save, 
Rends the dark doors away. 
And, through the breaches of the grave, 
Strides forth into the day. 



614 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Death's captive, in his gloomy prison, 
Fast fettered, he has lain ; 
But he has mastered death, is risen, 
And death wears now the chain. 

" The shining angels cry, — 'Away 
With grief ; no sj)ices bring : 
Not tears, but songs, this joyful day, 
Should greet the rising King,' " 



DOEOTHY ANN THRUPP. 
1779-1847. 

Miss Thkupp was the daughter of Mr. Joseph Thrupp, 
of Paddington Green, and was born, June 20, 1779, at Lon- 
don, England. She is known to history only by the few 
hymns that she contributed to "Hymns for the Young" 
(1830), which she edited for the London Religious Tract 
Society, and to Mrs. Herbert Mayo's " Selection of HjTnns 
and Poetry for the Use of Infant and Juvenile Schools," 
London. 1838. She died, at London, December 14, 1847. 
She wrote almost, if not quite, exclusively for the young. 
Her hymn, 

" Saviour! like a shepherd lead us," etc., 

is very good of its kind ; so is the following : 

" Let us sing, with one accord. 
Praise to Jesus Christ, our Lord ; 
He is worthy whom we praise ; 
Hearts and voices let us raise. 

" He hath made us by his power, 
He hath kept us to this hour. 
He redeems us from the grave, 
He who died now lives to save. 



AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. 615 

" What he bids us let us do ; 
Where he leads us let us go ; 
As he loves us, let us love 
All below and all above. 

" Angels praise him, so will we, 
Sinful children though we be ; 
Poor and weak, we'll sing the more, — 
Jesus helps the weak and poor. 

" Dear to him is childhood's prayer; 
Children's hearts to him are dear; 
Heart and voice, let all be given, 
All will find the way to heaven." 



AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. 

1740-1778. 

ToPLADY was the author of that most precious lyric, 

" Rock of ages! cleft for me!" etc, — 

one of the most popular hymns in the English language, and 
one that has found its way into nearly all the Collections. 
It has been adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, in its 
English original ; and, in the admirable Latin version of 
it (1848) by the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, is 
likely to find a place in the Breviary. 

Augustus Montague Toplady was the son of Richard 
Toplady, a commissioned officer in the British Army, who 
was married, December 21, 1737, to Catharine Bate. Their 
first child, Francis, died an infant. In 1740, Major Toplady 
was ordered to Spain, and died at the siege of Carthagena. 
Their second child was born, November 4, 1740, at Farnham, 
Surrey, just before his father's death. He derived his name 
from his two godfathers, Augustus Middleton and Adol- 
phus Montague. 



616 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Left to the sole care of his widowed mother from his 
infancy, his early education was not neglected. He was 
entered at Westminster School, of high repute, in the me- 
tropolis, and evinced a remarkable aptitude for learning. 
His mother had claims to an estate in Ireland, and took 
her son with her, on her journey thither. While at Cody- 
main, in Ireland, he strayed into a barn, where an unlet- 
tered layman, named James Morris, was preaching to a 
handful of people, from the text, — Ephesians ii. 13 : " But 
now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are 
made nigh by the blood of Christ." " Under that sermon," 
he says, "I was, I trust, brought nigh by the blood of 
Christ, in August, 1756." In another passage, he says, in- 
correctly, it was in " 1755." He now began a new life, and 
entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a student for the min- 
istry. 

As a relaxation from severer study, he composed during 
the next three years a considerable number of spiritual 
odes, poems and hymns. These early effusions he com- 
mitted to the press in 1769. They were published by 
Sarah Powell, at Dublin, and entitled, — " Poems on Sacred 
Subjects : Wherein the Fundamental Doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, with many other interesting Points, are occasion- 
ally introduced." The work contained 105 pieces. 

" Tliough awakened in 1755," he says, " I was not led into 
a full and clear view of all the doctrines of grace, till the 
year 1758, when, through the great goodness of God, my 
Arminian prejudices received an effectual shock, in reading 
Dr. Manton's Sermons on the xviith of St. John." From 
this time, to the end of his life, he was a decided Calvin- 
ist. Tyerman (Life and Times of Wesley, II. 315) records 
a letter written, September 13, 1758, in answer to one from 
Mr. J. Wesley, from which it would seem, that he had not 
yet read Manton. 

He received imposition of the hands of the bishop, on 
Trinity Sunday, June 6, 1762 ; and, shortly after, was pre- 
sented to the living of Blagdon, Somersetshire. Discover- 
ing that the place had been procured by purchase, he 



AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. 617 

resigned it, and not long after became the Vicar of Harp- 
ford, on tlie Otter, and of tlie adjacent parish of Fen 
Ottery, near Honiton, Devonshire. He exchanged these 
with the Rev. Mr. Luce, for the living of Broad Hembury, 
April 6, 1768, also in the same neighborhood. The living 
was rated at £80. Christophers speaks of " the delicious 
retreats on the banks of the Otter, amidst the beautiful 
hills which are overlooked by the western slopes of the 
Black Down range,"'where stands " the quiet i^arish church, 
of Broad Hembury." Here, amid the humble lace-workers 
of the district, he labored earnestly, during the next seven 
years, as his strength permitted. 

It was at Broad Hembury, that Toplady's soul-stimng 
hymns were composed. "Saturday, June 18, 1768," he 
writes, — "All day at home. Wrote several hymns; and, 
while writing that, which begins thus : 

' When faith 's alert, and hope shines clear,' etc., 

I was, through grace, very comfortable in my soul." 

Till now he was altogether unknown to fame. In March, 
1768, six students were expelled from St. Edmund's Hall, 
Oxford, in reality, for being "righteous overmuch." It 
created a great commotion among Low Churchmen. Top- 
lady, among others, denounced it, and wrote in defence of 
the Calvinism of the Articles. In reply to an Arminian 
tractate by the Rev. Dr. Nowel, he published (1769) " The 
Church of England vindicated from the charge of Armin- 
ianism." The same year, he published a translation of a 

Latin Essay by Jerome Zanchius, with the title, "The 

Doctrine of Absolute Predestination stated and asserted • 
with a Preliminary Discourse on the Divine Attributes ; 
accompanied with the Life of Zanchius." He had written 
it (1760) at the University in Dublin. 

A letter to Mr. Wesley followed in 1770, and "More 
Work for Mr. John Wesley," in 1772. "A Caveat against 
Unsound Doctrine," appeared in 1770, and three sermons 
in 1771. " Free Thoughts," etc., on " the Abolition of Ec- 
clesiastical Subscription," in 1771, and "Clerical Subscrip- 



618 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tion no Grievance" (1772), preceded Ms elaborate work 
(1774) entitled, — "Historical Proof of the Doctrinal Cal- 
vinism of the Church of England," in two volumes. The 
same year, he published two sermons joreached at London, 
bearing on the same discussion. " The Scheme of Chris- 
tian and Philosophical Necessity Asserted," appeared in 
1775. 

His repeated visits to the metropolis, where his mother 
resided, and his frequent publications, brought him to the 
notice of Lady Huntingdon and the circle of earnest preach- 
ers whom she delighted to encourage and patronize. He 
was invited to preach in her chapels, at London, at Brigh- 
ton and Bath, and became at once one of the most popular 
of evangelical preachers. He wrote continually, also, from 
early in 1774, for The Gospel Magazine (then newly re- 
vived), as "A. T.," or as "Minimus" or " Concionator"; 
and became, December, 1775, its editor, for seven months. 

He accepted, in April, 1776, a Lectureship for Sunday 
and Wednesday evenings, in the French Calvinist Reformed 
Church, Orange Street, Leicester Fields, London ; and con- 
tinued to minister there for the next two years. In 1776, 
he published his Compilation of " Psalms and Hymns for 
Public |ind Private Worship," on which he had bestowed 
much labor for some years. It contained 419 hymns, with- 
out the names of their authors, and many of the hymns 
considerably altered. The volume obtained much popular- 
ity, and has often been republished. 

His health continued to decline, so that he could no 
longer continue his public ministry. He preached but lit- 
tle after Easter, 1778, and died, as he had lived, full of faith, 
and hope, and joy, at his retreat at Knightsbridge, near 
London, August 11, 1778, in the thirty-eighth year of his 
age. 

His "Works" were published, in six volumes, by his 
friend and admirer, Mr. Walter Row, in 1794. The Collec- 
tion of Poems in this edition is very inaccurate, and has led 
to much confusion, both as to text and authorship. A cor- 
rect edition of his Poems and Hymns was published, in 



DANIEL TURNER. 619 

1860, by Mr. Daniel Sedgwick, of London. Much of his 
poetry is quite similar to Charles Wesley's, with which, 
from the period of his conversion, he had been quite famil- 
iar. The following well-known hymn (1776), characteristic 
in style and sentiment, is from his Collection : 

"A debtor to mercy alone, 

Of covenant-mercy I sing ; 
Nor fear, with thy righteousness on, 

My person and offerings to bring: 
The terrors of law and of God 

With me can have nothing to do ; 
My Saviour's obedience and blood 

Hide all my ti-ansgressions from view. 

" The work, which liis goodness began. 

The arm of his strength will complete ; 
His promise is Yea and Amen, 

And never was forfeited yet : 
Things future, nor things that are now, 

Not all things below nor above, 
Can make him his purpose forego. 

Or sever my soul from his love. 

*' My name from the palms of his hands 

Eternity will not erase ; 
Impressed on his heart it remains, 

In marks of indelible grace : 
Yes, I to the end shall endure, 

As sure as the earnest is given ; 
More happy, but not more secure, 

The glorified spirits in heaven." 



DANIEL TUENEE. 

1710-1798. 

Mr. Turner was a Baptist minister, who, for half a cen- 
tury, had charge of a church at Abingdon, Berkshire, Eng- 
land, where he was universally regarded with respect and 



620 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

veneration. He was born at Blackwater Park, near St. 
Albans, Hertfordshire, March 1, 1710. At an early age, he 
became a member of the Baptist Church of Hemel Hemp- 
stead, a short distance to the west of his father's farm, and 
where, having obtained a good classical education, he kept, 
in 1738, a boarding-school. Two years later (1740), he re- 
moved to Reading, on the Thames, and shortly after (1741) 
became the pastor of the Hosier Lane Baptist Church. 
In 1748, he removed to Abingdon, six miles south of Ox- 
ford, where he passed the remainder of his long and useful 
life. He died, on Wednesday, September 5, 1798, in the 
eighty -ninth year of his age. " His ministerial abilities," 
says the Evangelical Magazine, "useful writings, excellent 
character, and amiable disposition, rendered him through 
life universally resj^ected, and hold him up as an example 
to Christians in general, and Christian ministers in par- 
ticular. " 

He published (1739) an " Abstract of Grammar and Rhet- 
oric "; also, "Divine Songs, Hymns, and other Poems" 
(1747) ; "A Compendium of Social Religion " (1758) ; " Let- 
ters Religious and Moral " (1766) ; " Short Meditations on 
Select Portions of Scripture " (1771) ; and " Dissertations 
on Religion " (1775). His " Essays on Religion," in two vol- 
umes, appeared in 1780 ; and his " Expositions on Scrip- 
ture," in 1790. A volume of his " Poems Devotional and 
Moral " was i^rivately printed in 1794, several of which were 
transferred to TJie Protestant Dissentefs Magazine. Nine 
of his hymns appeared in Rippon's Selection (1787). The 
follomng stanzas, on the " Majesty of Grod," are a fair spec- 
imen of his style : 

"He speaks! and worlds obedient rise — 
Earth, suns and moons, and starry skies ; 
Anon his word of sovereign power 
Sinks them again to rise no more. 

"Around his throne, in solemn state, 
Mjrriads of flaming spirits wait, 
Swift to obey his sovereign will, 
And his high purposes fiiMl : — 



WILLIAM URWICK. 621 

* ' His purposes, a vast profound, 
With awful darkness veiled around ! 
Yet wisdom, truth, and mei'cy, too, 
Break with delightful glory through. 

"He rules o'er all created things, 
O'er meanest worms and mightiest kings, 
He leads the stars their ample rounds, 
He gives the raging waters bounds. 

"Seraphs to him their rapture owe; 
His vengeance burns in hell below ; 
While here to man's apostate race. 
His Son reveals his richest grace." 



WILLIAM URWICK. 

1791-1868. 

The Rev. William Urwick, D.D., for half a century, 
labored as an Independent minister in Ireland, with great 
success, universally respected and beloved. He was the 
only living son of William and Elinor (Eddowes) Urwick, 
of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, where he was born, 
December 8, 1791. He was the great nephew of the Rev. 
Thomas Urwick (1727-1807), of Clapham, near London. He 
was of such a puny and sickly constitution, during his 
boyhood, that his life w^as frequently regarded as in the 
utmost peril. In 1799, his father died, but his mother 
lived to be ninety-five years old. He was sent (1807) to a 
boarding-school at Worcester, kept by the Rev. Thomas 
Belsher. The next year he obtained a situation at Bir- 
mingham, and, in 1809, became a member of the Independ- 
ent church under the care of the Rev. John Angell James, 
whose personal friendship he enjoyed. 

After frequent trials of his gifts, Mr. James recommended 
him as a candidate for the ministry, and, July 29, 1812, he 



622 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

entered Hoxton Academy, of which, at the time, the Rev. 
Dr. Robert Simpson was Theological Tutor. In October, 
1815, he visited Sligo, in the Northwest of Ireland, and 
preached for the Independent Chnrch of that town several 
months. He was ordained their pastor, June 19, 1816. He 
married, June 16, 1818, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Cooke, 
of Shrew^sbury, whom he had known from his childhood. 

After a successful ministry of eleven years, he accepted 
a call to York Street Chapel, Dublin, and removed thither 
at the close of October, 1826. Here, for thirty-nine years, 
he continued the devoted and endeared pastor of the same 
church, abounding in labors and active in every good proj- 
ect, and rising, steadily and surely, to a position of com- 
manding influence. He received the honorary degree of 
D.D., in 1832, from Dartmouth College, U. S. A. 

He published : " A Concise View of the Doctrine of Scrip- 
ture concerning the Ordinance of Baptism" (1823); "An 
Authentic Report of the Easky Discussion " (1825) ; " The 
Evils, Occasions, and Cure of Intemperance " (1829) ; " A 
Collection of Hymns adapted to Congregational Worship " 
(1829) ; " The True Nature of Christ's Person and Atone- 
ment " (1831) ; " One Hundred Reasons from Scripture for 
believing in the Divinity of Christ " (1832) ; " Value and 
Claims of the Sacred Scriptures, and Reasons of Separation 
from the Church of Rome " (1835) ; " The Duty of Chris- 
tians in regard to the Use of Property " (1836) ; " Extem- 
porary Prayer " (1836) ; " Grace in the Bud " (1838) ; " The 
Saviour's Right to Divine Worship Vindicated " (1839) ; 
"God in the Storm" (1839); "The Second Advent of 
Christ" (1839) ; "The Captain and his Crew" (1840) ; "The 
Ecclesiastical Movement in Scotland " (1843) ; " The Con- 
nection between Religion and the State " (1845) ; " Divine 
Laws Ordained for Blessing " (1848) ; " The Pax)al Aggres-* 
sion " (1850) ; " The Triple Crown, or the Power, Course, 
and Doom of the Papacy " (1852) ; " China," in " Two Lec- 
tures " (1854) ; " Earth's Rulers Judged " (1855) ; " Truth 
and Love,"—" in reply to Dr. Edgar " (1858) ; " History of 
Dublin " for the Religious Tract Society ; " Independency 



WILLIAM URWICK. 623 

in Dublin in the Olden Time" (1862); " Clirist's World 
School," in Verse (1866) ; and " Biographic Sketches of J. 
D. La Toiiche, Esq." (1868). 

In the compilation of his Hymn-Book, he examined abont 
150 volumes, and introduced a few hymns of his own. He 
had quite a rhjTning propensity, particularly in the decline 
of life. He frequently prepared one or more hymns to be 
sung on JSTew Year's Bay, or on Special Occasions. 

On the completion of his fiftieth year of ministerial ser- 
vice, a Jubilee Meeting was held, and, besides numerous 
flattering testimonials accorded him, he received a gift of 
£2,000 from his congregation. He now resigned his pas- 
toral charge, but continued in active service as long as his 
health allowed. He died, at his home near Dublin, July 
16, 1868. 

The following hymn was prepared for New Year's Day, 
1862: 

" Hitherto the Lord hath helped us, 
Here our souls this morn record ; 
Hitherto the Lord hath blessed us ; 
Raise the song with full accord : 

Hearts and voices ! 
All unite to praise the Lord. 

" For his mercy, still enduring. 

Still his truth and power the same, 
Stand for ever firm, assuring- 
All who love his holy name, 

He will never 
Let their hope be put to shame. 

* ' Forwards, forwards, then, with gladness, 
Gird your loins anew this day ; 
Rid of doubt, and sloth, and sadness, 
Strong in heart, through him, your stay, 

Brave the future. 
Nor distrust him, come what may." 



624 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

BENJAMIN WALLIN. 
1711-1782. 

The congregation tliat met at Horselydown, London, 
over whom Benjamin Keach was (1668) ordained pastor, is 
said to have been the first among the English Baptists that 
practised singing in public worship. Its introduction oc- 
casioned great opposition and a voluminous pamphlet con- 
troversy. In 1691, a portion of the church withdrew, and 
organized a new congregation at Maze Pond, Southwark, 
where singing was not to be tolerated. Of this congrega- 
tion, the Rev. Edward Wallin (1678-1733) became the 
pastor, in 1703. 

Benjamin Wallin was his son, and was born (1711) in 
Southwark, London. By the negligence of a nurse, he be- 
came a cripple from infancy. He was educated chiefly by 
the Rev. John Needham, a Baptist minister of Hitchin, 
Hertfordshire. Mr. Abraham West, his father's successor 
(1736), had accepted the charge on condition of the intro- 
duction of singing into public worship. He died in 1739, 
and, the following year, Benjamin Wallin was chosen to the 
pastorate of the church where he had been trained from 
infancy. 

Of this church, he remained the pastor until his death, 
February 19, 1782, at the age of seventy-one years, — "a 
man," says his tombstone, " (human frailty abated) exempt 
from all the faults, and endowed with all the virtues of 
a Christian minister." 

Besides about twenty occasional Sermons, the first of 
which was printed in 1746, and the last in 1780 (the most 
of which were Funeral Discourses), he published sevei'al 
short Essays on Practical Religion, and (1769) a volume of 
" Lectures on Primitive Christianity," " on the Epistle to the 
Church at Sardis," and " on the Faithful in the Days of 
Malachi"; of which a reprint was issued (1801) at Wil- 
mington, Del. 

He iDublished also (1850) a volume of "Evangelical 



BENJAMIN WALLIN. 625 

Hymns and Songs, in Two Parts : The First, composed on 
various Views- of the Christian Life and Warfare ; The 
Second, in Praise of the Redeemer : Published for the 
Comfort and Entertainment of True Christians ; with 
Authorities at large from the Scriptures." The most of 
the " hymns were composed on special occasions, and with 
no further design than that of private use." Two of them 
were contributed by the author to the June Number of the 
Gospel Magazine for 1776. Both hymns were considerably 
modified. Toplady transferred them both, in this modified 
form, to his Collection, and thus made them familiar to the 
churches as now used. As the author was a well-known 
IDastor in London, at the time, it is probable that these 
modifications were made by himself, or with his sanc- 
tion. The following hymn, suggested by Rom. vii. 4, 6, 
was reproduced by D obeli : 

" Sing to the Lord, ye heirs of faith! 
Of Abraham's chosen seed, 
The law, that sentenced you to death, 
Is now through Jesus dead. 

*' Our Surety, by his cross, has broke 
The Law's condemning power ; 
For on himself our sins he took, 
And the hand- writing tore. 

" He bore our sins and set us free; 
No charge on us can lie ; 
His blood 's an all-sufficient plea 
Our souls to justify. 

* ' By legal works no more we strive 
To be discharged from guilt ; 
Dead to the law, to Christ we live. 
Whose blood for us was spilt. 

" Adore the Father's sovereign love, 
Who gave his only Son, 
Our curse and misery to remove, 
And make his mercy known." 

40 



626 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

RALPH WARDLAW. 

1779-1853. 

The Rev. Dr. Wardlaw was born, December 22, 1779, 
at Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland. His mother, Anne Fisher, 
was the daughter of the Rev. James Fisher, the son-in-law 
and successor (as Professor of Theology) of the renowned 
Ebenezer Erskine, the father and founder of the Secession 
Church of Scotland. He is said, also, to have been a de- 
scendant, by his mother, of James V., King of Scotland. 
Six months after his birth, his father, William Wardlaw 
(1741-1821), removed to Glasgow, where he became one of 
its most honorable merchants and magistrates, as well as 
one of the pillars of the Secession Church. 

At eight, he was sent to the High School of Glasgow, 
and at twelve (1791) to the University of Glasgow, where 
he graduated, a mere boy (1795). Having experienced the 
power of divine grace, he entered the Divinity School of 
the Secession Church, and studied for the ministry under 
the instruction of the venerable Rev. Dr. Lawson, of Sel- 
kirk. As he was about to close his preparatory studies, 
and apply for license to preach, the Rev. Greville Ewing 
and the Rev. William Innes left the Established Church, 
and became (1798) the founders of the Scottish Congrega- 
tional Denomination. Young Wardlaw became deeply 
interested in the movement, and connected himself with 
the Congregational Church in Glasgow, of which Mr. Ew- 
ing had become the pastor. He now devoted himself to 
the gathering of a congregation in North Albion Street, 
of which he was ordained (February 16, 1803) the pastor. 
A humble edifice was erected, which the congregation 
soon outgrew ; and, in 1819, a commodious and substan- 
tial structure was built in West George Street, which was 
occupied by one of the largest, most intelligent, and most 
liberal congregations in the city. In 1811, he was associ- 
ated with Mr. Ewing as one of the Tutors of the Theolog- 



RALPH WAEDLAW. 627 

ical School of tlie denomination,— a position that he con- 
tinued to fill, almost without additional remuneration, to 
the end of his life. 

As pastor and tutor, he rose steadily and surely to 
occujjy one of the very highest positions of influence out- 
side of the Established Church. Of the Congregational 
body of ministers, he was the acknowledged leader and 
chief. As a preacher he was universally popular, being 
regarded as one of the clearest, as well as most convincing, 
reasoners, in the Scottish pulpit. As a writer, he exerted 
a still more powerful influence for good — accurate in his 
statements, forcible in his arguments, and exhaustive in his 
discussions. His fame was not confined to Scotland, but ex- 
tended throughout England, and even New England. Yale 
College conferred (1818) on him the honorary degree of D.D. 

His literary industry was marvelous. His first venture 
from the press was " A Selection of Hymns for Public Wor- 
ship," prepared in 1803, to take the place of an inferior 
Collection, then in use among the Scotch Congregational - 
ists, known as " The Tabernacle Selection." The new 
book contained 315 hymns and seven doxologies. A few 
of the hymns were from his ow^n pen. The names of the 
authors w^ere not given, because, in part, " he found occasion 
to use such freedom, in enlarging, abridging, and altering, 
that they could not, with propriety, be assigned to their 
first composers." The Fifth Edition (1817) contained a 
" Supplement" of 171 additional hymns. The " Selection" 
evinces good taste and excellent judgment. It has had a 
large circulation. Dr. Wardlaw had exhibited a rhyming 
propensity, while at college, and frequently indulged it, as 
a recreation, in later years. 

He published : " Lectures on Romans iv. 9-2.5," a Defence 
of Infant Baptism (1807) ; " Sermons " (1809) ; " Discourses 
on the Principal Points of the Socinian Controversy" 
(1814) ; " Unitarianism Incapable of Vindication " (1816) : 
"Expository Lectures on the Book of Ecclesiastes," two 
volumes (1821) ; " A Dissertation on the Scriptural Author- 
ity, Nature, and Uses of Baptism " (1825) ; " Man Respon- 



628 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

sible for his Belief," two Sermons (1825) ; " XYII Seiinons" 
(1829); "Friendly Letters to the Society of Friends" 
(1830) ; " Two Essays on the Assurance of Faith, and on 
the Extent of the Atonement and Universal Pardon " 
(1830) ; " Discourses on the Sabbath " (1832) ; " Civil Estab- 
lishments of Christianity Tried by the Word of God" 
(1832) ; " Christian Ethics ; or Moral Philosophy on the 
Principles of Divine Revelation " (1833); " National Church 
Establishments Examined " (1839) ; " Lectures on Female 
Prostitution in Glasgow " (1842); " Discourses on the Atone- 
ment " (1843) ; " Life of Joseph and the Last Days of 
Jacob " (1845) ; " Congregational Independence " (1848) ; 
and an " Essay on the Miracles " (1852). Numerous Arti- 
cles, also, appeared in periodicals, or as Prefaces and Intro- 
ductions to other publications. He died December 17, 
1853. 

After his death, his " Systematic Theology " appeared in 
1856-57 ; " Lectures on the Book of Proverbs," in 1861 ; 
" Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans," in 1861 ; " Lec- 
tures on the Prophecies of Zechariah," in 1862 ; and " Lec- 
tures on the Epistle of James," in 1862. " Memoirs of the 
Life and Writings of the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D.D.," by 
W. L. Alexander, D.D., were published in 1856. The fol- 
lowing stanzas are from his 168th hymn, of which the sec- 
ond and third are omitted : 

' ' Contemplate, saints ! the source divine, 
Whence all your joys have flowed : 
With wondering minds and praising hearts, 
' Behold the Lamb of God ! ' 

" With holy mind, and heart renewed, 
Run ye the narrow road ? 
His sprinkled blood has cleansed your souls; 
' Behold the Lamb of God ! ' 

" Each heavenly blessing ye receive 

Through Jesus is bestowed ; 

In every good your souls possess, 

' Behold the Lamb of God 1 ' 



ISAAC WATTS. 

" Hope ye, in heaven with God at last 
To find your blessed abode ? 
Still, as the ground of all your hopes, 
' Behold the Lamb of God ! ' " 



ISAAC WATTS. 
1674-1748. 

Isaac Watts is a name of most precious memory. More 
than two centuries have passed since his birth, and yet no 
one, even to this day, so often leads the praises of the sanc- 
tuary, as the bard of Southampton. "Every Sabbath," 
wrote Montgomery in 1825, " in every region of the earth 
where his native tongue is spoken, thousands and tens of 
thousands of voices are sending the sacrifices of prayer and 
praise to God, in the strains which he prepared for them a 
century ago ; yea, every day, ' he being dead yet speaheth ' 
by the lips of posterity, in these sacred lays, some of which 
may not cease to be sung by the ransomed on their Journey 
to Zion, so long as the language of Britain endures." 

" Of Watts," said Dr. Dibdin, " it is im]30ssible to speak 
Avithout veneration and respect. His Hymns are the charm 
of our early youth ; his Logic, the well-knowTi theme of 
school-boy study ; and his Sermons, Essays, and other the- 
ological compositions, are a source of never-failing gratifi- 
cation in the advance, maturity, and decline of life. The 
man at four-score may remember, with gratitude, the ad- 
vantage of having committed the hymns of this pious man 
to his infantile memory." 

" My grandfather, Mr. Thomas Watts," says Watts, " had 
such acquaintance with the mathematics, painting, music, 
and poesy, etc. , as gave him considerable esteem among his 
contemporaries. He was commander of a ship of war (1656), 
and by blowing up of the ship in the Dutch war he was 
drowned in his youth." His widow survived until July 13, 



630 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

1693, taking an active and prominent part in the education 
of lier grandson. 

Their son, Isaac Watts, Sr., like his parents, was a thor- 
ough Puritan ; a deacon, also, in the Congregational Church 
of Southampton, and eminent for piety. Born in 1652, he 
came to years during the stormy days of persecution that 
characterized the later years of Charles II. He married in 
1673, and had born to him four sons and five daughters. 
He was well educated, and addicted to the art of versifica- 
tion. He opened a boarding-school, that soon acquired 
considerable reputation, — pupils being sent to it even from 
America and the West Indies. His pastor, the Rev. Giles 
Say, had been ejected from St. Michael's in 1662 ; but, in 
March, 1672, on the " Declaration of Indulgence," had ob- 
tained license to preach in his own house. The " Declara- 
tion" was recalled in 1674, and the torch of persecution 
kindled anew. 

It was at this crisis, that the child, Isaac Watts, was born, 
July 17, 1674, in Southampton, Hampshire, England, the 
first-born of his mother. He was nursed and trained in 
times that greatly tried men's souls. Mr. Say and deacon 
Watts were both imi^risoned, a short time, for their non- 
conformity ; and tradition has it, that the mother of the 
poet had nursed him, seated on a stone near the prison 
door. Under his father's instruction, he developed a re- 
markable precocity. At the age of four years (1678) he 
"began to learn Latin," and made rapid progress in ele- 
mentary knowledge. 

He was sent (1680), at six years of age, to the free gram- 
mar-school of Southampton, then under the charge of the 
Rev. John Pinhorne, Rector of All Saints' Church, a gen- 
tleman of considerable ability, and much revered in after 
life by his eminent pupil. Three years later (1688), the 
persecution of Dissenters in England and Scotland raged 
furiously. The elder Watts was imprisoned again for six 
months ; and, on being released, was " forced to leave his 
family, and live privately in London for two years. " King 
Charles II. died, February 6, 1785, and was succeeded by 



ISAAC WATTS. 631 

James II. Mr. Watts remained in London several months 
later, and probably until milder counsels began to prevail. 

Young Watts still continued at the grammar-school, and 
("1683 or before") "began to learn Greek"; in 1684-5, he 
" learnt French," and " 1687 or 8," " learnt Hebrew." From 
a child he had been passionately fond of books, and his 
rhyming propensity began to be developed as early as his 
sixth year. The glorious " Revolution " was inaugurated 
by the landing of the Prince of Orange in England, No- 
vember 5, 1688, and persecution came to an end. The same 
year, Watts was brought " under considerable convictions 
of sin," and (1689) in his fifteenth year "was taught to 
trust in Christ." He continued under Mr. Pinhorne's in- 
structions ten years (1680-1690). 

The remarkable developments of the lad induced Dr. 
John Si)eed, a physician of the town, and other admiring 
friends, to offer him a University course at their expense. 
But, as this involved a surrender of his non-conformity, 
and " he was determined to take his lot among the Dis- 
senters," he respectfully and gratefiilly declined the offer. 
Having now " made himself master of the Latin, Greek, He- 
brew, and French, languages," he " left the grammar-school 
(1690) and came to London, to Mr. Howe's, to study plii- 
losophy, etc." 

The Rev. Thomas Rowe (1657-1705), brother of the Rev. 
Benoni Rowe, and son of Rev. John Rowe, all of London, 
at the decease (1678) of the learned Rev. Theophilus Gale, 
took charge of the Academy, taught by the latter at New- 
ington Green ; which he removed, first to Clapham, Surrey, 
and, at the Revolution (1688), to " Little Britain," in the im- 
mediate vicinity of St. Paul's Church, and the present site 
of the General Post-Office, St. Martin's-le-Grand, London. 
Here Watts resided until the early part of 1694, most dili- 
gently and successfully prosecuting his studies. A manu- 
script volume, containing twenty- two of his Latin Essays, 
on physical, metaphysical, ethical, and theological theses, 
is extant. Dr. Samuel Johnson says, they " show a degree 
of knowledge, both philosophical and theological, such as 
very few attain by a much longer course of study." 



632 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Mr. Rowe, his teacher, was the pastor of an Independent 
church worshiping in Girdler's Hall, on the east side, near 
London AVall. Here Watts worshiped during his student 
life in London, and here, December, 1693, in his twentieth 
year, he first made a public profession of religion. In 
April, 1694, having finished, with the greatest credit, his 
academic career, including a thorough course of theologi- 
cal study, and being enfeebled by excessive application, he 
returned to his father's house at Southampton for rest and 
recreation — a slender youth, scarcely more than five feet in 
height, and yet one of the ripest scholars of his age any- 
w^here to be found in the kingdom. 

From the age of fifteen (1689), he had enlivened the se- 
verity of study by essays in poetry, both English and Latin, 
In allusion to these early efforts of his muse, Dr, Samuel 
Johnson says, — " his diction, though i^erhaps not always 
exactly pure, has such copiousness and splendor, as shows 
that he was but a very little distance from excellence, " So 
refined an ear must have taken no little offence at the rude 
and uncouth psalmody to which the humble congregation 
of Independents at Southampton were restricted. It is 
more than probable, that they still sung House's versions 
of the Psalms. The day of hymn-books had not yet come. 
Joseph Stennett's " Hymns for the Lord's Supper " did not 
appear until 1697. John Mason's " Songs of Praise " had 
appeared in 1683, but as yet had been little used among 
the Dissenters, as Mason belonged to "The Church." Tate 
and Brady's " New Version " of the Psalms was not au- 
thorized until 1698. The " Old Version " of Sternhold and 
Hopkins still kept its place in the churches of the Estab- 
lishment. Possibly this " Old Version " may have been in 
use among the Independents, to some extent. Patrick's 
Version was just then (1694) passing through the press. 

The Rev. John Morgan, of Romsey, Hampshire, says: 
" The occasion of the Doctor's hymns was this, as I had the 
account from his Avorthy fellow-laborer and colleague, the 
Rev. Mr. Price, in whose family I dwelt above fifty years 
ago. The hymns, which were sung at the Dissenting meet 



ISAAC WATTS. 633 

ing-house at Southampton, were so little to the taste of Mr. 
Watts, tliat lie could not forbear complaining of tliem to 
liis father. The father bade him try what he could do to 
mend the matter. He did, and had such success in his first 
essay, that a second hymn was earnestly desired of him, 
and then a third and fourth, etc., till, in process of time, 
there was such a number of them as to make up a volume." 
This letter was addressed to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Gibbons, 
and published (1780) in his "Memoirs of Dr. Isaac Watts." 
Tradition, also, reports, that the first hymn thus composed 
was that excellent lyric, 

" Behold the glories of the Lamb," etc., 

a tradition to be traced, probably, to the fact, that this is 
the first hymn, numerically, of his first Book. The only 
one of his " Hymns," to which a date was afllxed by the 
author, is the sixty-second of his second Book,— 

" Sing to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts ! " etc., — 

which was " made in a great sudden storm of thunder, Au- 
gust the 20th, 1697," at Stoke I^ewington, near London, 
where he was then residing. 

During the thirty months of his sojourn at home (1694- 
1696), Watts continued the prosecution of his studies, as 
well as the composition of his "Hymns and Spiritual 
Songs." In his brief "Memoranda," he says: "Came to 
Sir John Hartopp's, to be a tutor to his son, at Newington, 
October W, 1696." Sir John was one of the most eminent 
among the lay non-conformists of the period. He was an 
intimate friend of the renowned Rev. Dr. John Owen, of 
whose church he was a member. His wife, Elizabeth, was 
a daughter of the Lord General Charles Fleetwood, whose 
second wife, Bridget Cromwell, was the eldest daughter of 
the Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Fleetwood and his wife 
had both died, the former only four years before (1692). 
Stoke Newington was a rural suburb of the metropolis, a 
few miles to the north. 



634 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

In tliis pleasant retreat, and in tlie midst of a cliarming 
circle of highly -cultured Christian people, Watts found a 
delightful home for the greater part of six years. Sir 
John's family worshiped with Dr. Isaac Chauncey's con- 
gregation at the house of a Dr. Clarke, in Mark Lane, near 
the Tower of London. Here Watts preached his first ser- 
mon, on his birth-day, July 17, 1698 ; and, the next month, 
on a visit home, preached several times at Southampton. 
The next February (1699), he was chosen and began to 
preach as Dr. Chauncey's Assistant, at Mark Lane Church, 
occupying the pulpit every Sabbath morning. The same 
year, he began to be affected with the infirmity from which 
he suffered during the most of his subsequent life. It re- 
turned upon him, in the summer of the following year 
(1700), and still more severely in 1701. From June to No- 
vember, he was obliged to decline all public services, pass- 
ing his time at Bath, Southampton, and Tunbridge. 

Dr. Chauncey resigned the pastorate in April, 1701, and 
Watts, on his return to Newington, in IS'ovember, was 
called, January W, 1702, to be his successor. He was or- 
dained, March 18, 1702, ten days after the decease of King 
William. He was preceded in the pastorate by the emi- 
nent divines, Joseph Caryl and John Owen, as well as 
David Clarkson and Isaac Chauncey. He entered upon 
his work with much self-distrust and trembling. Again 
his health gave way, and in September he was laid aside 
by " violent Gaundice and cholic," from which he suffered, 
more than two months. Leaving Newington, he became 
the guest of Mr. Thomas Hollis, residing in the spacious 
street called " The Minonis," near the Tower. The son of 
Mr, Hollis became a distinguished benefactor of Harvard 
College. 

His constitution had become so enfeebled by disease, 
that, in June, 1703, the Rev. Samuel Price, a native of 
Wales, was chosen his assistant. His infinnities having, 
for four years, prevented his app] xation to study, he now, 
December, 1703, began to employ an amanuensis, to read to 
him and write for him. In June, 1704, the congregation 



ISAAC WATTS. 635 

removed from Mark Lane to Pinners' Hall, Old Broad 
Street, in the very heart of the city, a place of hallowed 
memories to the Dissenters. After much importunity on 
the part of friends and admirers, he ventured to appear in 
print, and, December, 1705, published his " Hora3 Lyrica) ; 
Poems, chiefly of the Lyric Kind." The book was well re- 
ceived, and his reputation as a lyric poet was established. 
It brought him many flattering encomiums, and eight edi- 
tions were called for during the author's life-time. 

His brother, Enoch, residing at Southampton, had writ- 
ten to him, in March, 1700, urging him, at much length, and 
with a very plausible show of argument, "to oblige the 
world by showing it " his " hymns in print." The success 
of the " Lyi-ics " now determined him no longer to delay 
the publication of the Hymns, the most of which had been 
wiitten before the century commenced. He had, however, 
many misgivings as to the popular verdict. In a Prefatory. 
Essay, he sought most carefully to disarm criticism. He 
refers to the wretched state of the prevalent psalmody, and 
says : " Many ministers, and many private Christians, have 
long groaned under this inconvenience, and have wished, 
rather than attempted, a reformation. At their importu- 
nate and repeated requests, I have, for some years past, de- 
voted many hours of leisure to this service." 

He protests that he has sought to bring the hymns down 
to the capacity of the people : " The metaphors are gener- 
ally sunk to the level of vulgar capacities. I have aimed 
at ease of numbers and smoothness of sound, and endeav- 
ored to make the sense plain and obvious. If the verse 
appears so gentle and flowing as to incur the censure of 
feebleness, T may honestly affirm, that sometimes it cost 
me labor to make it so. Some of the beauties of poesy are 
neglected, and some wilfully defaced ; I have thrown out 
the lines that were too sonorous, and have given an allay 
to the verse, lest a more exalted turn of thought, or lan- 
guage, should darken or disturb the devotion of the weak- 
est souls." It was this very process, doubtless, that gave 
his hymns such a marvelous adaptation to the wants of the 



636 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

worsMpers, and made them such universal favorites from 
tlie first. They were immeasurably in advance of every- 
thing of the kind then known ; and they struck a chord 
that, even now, has not ceased to vibrate. 

His " Hymns and Spiritual Songs : In Three Books," first 
appeared in July, 1707. The work contained 222 hymns, 
including 12 doxologies. A new edition was soon called 
for. It was issued in April, 1809, corrected and much 
enlarged. To the first book were added 72 new hymns ; 60 
to the second ; 3 to the third ; besides 3 new doxologies 
and 4 "Hosannas." The text of the former edition had 
been carefully revised and corrected. Fourteen imitations 
of the Psalms were omitted, in order to be incorporated in 
his contemplated Book of Psalms. Tlie new hymns were 
also printed in a " Supplement." 

The hymn-book had hitherto been unknown in public 
worship. Neither Mason's " Songs of Praise," nor Sten- 
nett's " Hymns for the Lord's Supjjer," had been adopted as 
vehicles of public praise. No other book, then extant, was 
adapted to this service. Watts is conceded to have been 
the Great Reformer of Public Worship, in the matter of 
united Praise. He is the Father of Hymnody and its chief 
promoter. " Dr. Watts," says Montgomery, " may almost 
be called the inventor of hymns in our language ; for he so 
far departed from all precedent, that few of his composi- 
tions resemble those of his forerunners, — while he so far 
established a precedent to all his successors, that none have 
departed from it, otherwise than according to the peculiar 
turn of mind in the writer, and the style of expressing 
Christian truths employed by the denomination to which 
he belonged." 

Montgomery does not hesitate to speak of Watts, as 
" the greatest name among hymn- writers," — " since it has 
pleased God to confer upon him, though one of the lea t of 
the poets of his country, more glory than upon the greatest 
either of that or any other, by making his ' Divine Songs ' 
a mo-e abundant and universal blessing, than the verses of 
any uninspired penman that ever lived." — " We say this, 



ISAAC WATTS. 637 

witliout reserve, of the materials of his hymns ; had their 
execution always been correspondent with the precionsness 
of these, we should have had a 'Christian Psalmist' in 
England, next (and that only in date, not in dignity) to the 
' Sweet Singer of Israel.' " 

At the close of September, 1708, his congregation took 
possession of their new house of worship, Duke's Place, 
Bury Street, — erected on a piece of ground leased of Mr. 
Charles Great, previously occupied as his garden. It was 
forty by fifty feet, and had three large galleries. Tliey 
continued to worship here during the remainder of Watts' 
life. At the end of the year 1710, he removed his lodgings 
from the house of Mr. Hollis, to that of Mr. Bowes. 

His malady again made inroads upon his health, and re- 
turned upon him, in the autumn of 1712, with such vio- 
lence, as to unfit him for all public service. A violent 
fever, and a consequent distressing neuralgia, so over- 
powered him, as to deprive him, at times, of all apparent 
consciousness. At the request of Watts himself, his as- 
sistant, Mr. Price, was ordained, March 3, 1713, his co- 
X)astor. 

Sir Thomas Abney, a member of Parliament, and formerly 
(1700) Lord Mayor of the City of London, was a devout 
non-conformist. He had an estate at Theobalds, Hertford- 
shire, adjacent to the ruins of Lord Burleigh's Palace, in 
the immediate vicinity of Cheshunt and Waltham Park. 
His first wife was the daughter of the learned Rev. Joseph 
Caryl. In 1700, at the age of sixty-one, he married Mary 
Gunston, the sister of Thomas Gunston, Esq., "who died 
November 11, 1700, when he had just finished his seat at 
Newington," — the manor-house of Stoke Newington. Both 
Gunston and his sister. Lady Abney, who inherited the 
estate, were special friends of Watts, who wrote an Elegiac 
Poem, on the occasion of his death, and dedicated it to 
"Lady Abney, Lady Mayoress of London." After Watts 
had been prostrated by severe illness. Sir Thomas, in 1713, 
invited him to his seat at Theobalds, with the hope that 
the change might be beneficial. He accepted the invita- 



63S THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

tion. Many years afterwards, lie said to Lady Huntingdon, — 
" This day thirty years I came hither to the house of my 
good friend Sir Thomas Abney, intending to spend but one 
single week under his friendly roof, and I have extended 
my visit to the length of exactly thirty years." It was a 
delightful rural retreat, much resorted to by the London 
gentry, and the abode of the choicest society. AVith a 
generosity unbounded, and a tenderness most exemplary, 
the noble baronet and his family ministered to their be- 
loved guest, supplying his every want, and alleviating to 
the utmost the severity of his malady. 

During a period of four years (1712-1716), Watts was 
laid aside from all public work. He ministered as his pa- 
tron's chaplain, and, when possible, preached a parlor ser- 
mon, on the evenings of the Lord's Days. In 1716, he 
published his " Guide to Prayer." Much of his leisure at 
Theobalds, when convalescent, he employed in the comple- 
tion of his "Psalms." In the Preface to his "Hymns" 
(1707), he had said : " After this manner should I rejoice 
to see a good part of the book of Psalms fitted for the use 
of our churches, and David converted into a Christian ; 
but, because I can not persuade others to attempt this 
glorious work, I have suffered myself to be persuaded to 
begin it, and have, through divine goodness, already pro- 
ceeded half way through." 

The work was at length prepared for publication, and 
issued at the opening of the year 1719. The Preface 
and Advertisement are dated December 1, 1718. In the 
Preface, after a kindly reference to Sir John Denham, 
Mr. Milbourne, and Mr. Tate and Dr. Brady, he says : 
" I have not refused, in some few psalms, to borrow a single 
line or two from these three authors ; yet I have taken the 
most freedom of that sort with Dr. Patrick, for his style 
best agrees with my design, though his verse be generally 
of a lower strain." The Rev. Dr. John Patrick, a brother 
of Bishop Simon Patrick, had, in 1694, published " The 
Psalmes of David, in Metre," of which Watts, in his Pref- 
ace, says : " He hath made use of the present language of 



ISAAC WATTS. 639 

Christians in several Psalms, and left out many of the 
Judaisms. This is the thing that hath introduced him into 
the favor of so many religious assemblies ; even those very 
persons, that have an aversion to sing anything in worship 
but David's psalms, have been led insensibl^^ to fall in with 
Dr. Patrick's performance, by a relish of pious pleasure ; 
never considering that his work is by no means a just 
translation, but a paraphrase." 

The design of Watts was, " to accommodate the Book of 
Psalms to Christian worship ; and, in order to this," — 
" to divest David and Asaph, etc. , of every other character 
but that of a psalmist and a saint, and to make them 
always speak the common sense of a Christian." "With 
this view," he says, " I have entirely omitted some whole 
Psalms, and large pieces of many others ; and have chosen, 
out of all them, such parts only as might easily and natu- 
rally be accommodated to the various occasions of the Chris- 
tian life, or at least might afford us some beautiful allusion 
to Christian affairs. These I have copied and explained in 
the general style of the gospel." — "I have chosen rather 
to imitate than to translate ; and thus to compose a Psalm- 
book for Christians after the manner of the Jewish Psalter." 
" I have expressed myself, as I may suppose David would 
have done, had he lived in the days of Christianity." — " In 
all places, I have kept my grand design in view, and that 
is, to teach my author to speak like a Christian." 

It ^^'as a great innovation. It encountered a world of 
prejudices, well-nigh inveterate — prejudices, that, even to 
this day, maintain their hold upon large and respectable 
bodies of Christian people. To meet these difficulties, and 
overcome them, to counteract these prejudices, or mitigate 
their severity, and to defend his work against all opposi- 
tion, he prepared, " at the request of several ministers and 
private Christians who practised psalmody in this method 
themselves," and soon after published, "A Short Essay 
toward the Improvement of Psalmody"; having, in the 
Preface to his "Psalms," begged his readers to suspend 
their censures of his work, " tiU," he says, " they have read 



640 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

my Discourse of Psalmody, which I hope will shortly be 
published." 

The "Psalms" was a work far in advance of anything 
previously published " for the service of song in the house 
of the Lord." He was admirably qualified for it, j)ossessing, 
as he did, a thoroughly educated and classical mind, great 
familiarity with the Hebrew text, a remarkable facility of 
versification, a lively imagination, a refined ear, a thorough 
acquaintance with the poetic literature, sacred and profane, 
of the age, and a cultivated poetic taste, — the whole sancti- 
fied by " an unction from the Holy One," by constant and 
devout intercourse with the spiritual world, and by a glow- 
ing zeal for the universal spread of the Gospel among his 
fellow-men. 

The " Hymns " had prepared the way for the " Psalms," 
and excited large expectations in the circle of his particu- 
lar friends. An edition of four thousand copies was sold 
the first year. Gradually the book supplanted Patrick, 
and Rouse, and Sternhold ; and was ado^^ted by a large 
proportion of the Dissenting congregations of the metrop- 
olis. It became popular throughout the kingdom, and in 
the British Colonies of the New World. Together with 
the " Hymns " it has been issued in numberless editions. 
Millions of copies have been circulated. It still commands 
an immense sale. For a hundred years and more after its 
first appearance, scarcely anything in the way of a Compila- 
tion appeared among the Dissenters (the Wesleyans ex- 
cepted), but as "A Supplement to Watts." Watts sup- 
planted all his predecessors, save in "The Establishment"; 
but, to this day, has never himself been supplanted. The 
use of " Watts' Psalms and Hymns " so generally among 
the Dissenting churches of England had much to do in 
keeping alive the flame of true devotion, during the long 
period of foraialism that characterized much of the 
eighteenth century. And now, though new compilations 
of hymns have, during the present century, been continu- 
ally seeking the patronage of the churches, not one of 
them can obtain or secure it among the Congregational, 



ISA^iC WATTS. 641 

Presbyterian, or Baptist Cliurches of England and America, 
that is not largely composed of Watts' inimitable Spiritual 
Songs. To this day, Isaac Watts remains the peerless 
"Poet of the Sanctuary." 

But the most widely circulated of all his publications, 
and, in some respects, the most useful, was his " Divine 
and Moral Songs for the Use of Children," that ai^peared 
in 1720, though the greater part had been composed several 
years before. An immense number of copies of this little 
book have been put in circulation ; hundreds of thousands 
are printed yearly. The " Songs " have exerted an incalcu- 
lable influence for good over the infantile minds of at least 
five generations. They have been translated into a large 
number of European and other languages, and are known 
and loved throughout the world. " For children," says Dr. 
Samuel Johnson, " he condescended to lay aside the scholar, 
the philosopher, and the wit, to write little poems of devo- 
tion, and systems of instruction, adapted to their wants, 
and capacities, from the dawn of reason, through its grada- 
tions of advance in the morning of life. Every man, 
acquainted with the common principles of human action, 
will look with veneration on the writer, who is at one time 
combating Locke, and at another making a Catechism for 
Children in their fourth year. A voluntary descent from 
the dignity of science is perhaps the hardest lesson that 
humility can teach." 

In 1722, his venerated friends and patrons, Sir John Har- 
topp, and Sir Thomas Abney, both died. Lady Abney 
subsequently divided her time between Theobalds and her 
own manor-house at Stoke Kewington, when in the coun- 
try, and her house in Lime Street, when in the city, — from 
all which places Watts dates his letters and his publica- 
tions. His health, though much improved since 1716, con- 
tinued very precarious. " I am continually prevented," he 
says, in an address to his people, February 21, 1721, "in 
my design of successive visits to you, by the want of active 
spirits while I tarry in the city ; and, if I attempt to stay 
but a week or ten days there, I find a sensible return of 
41 



642 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

weakness ; so that I am constrained to retire to the coun- 
try air, in order to recruit and maintain this little capacity 
of service." He preached whenever on the Sabbath it was 
possible, though in great weakness ; but frequently he was 
kept from the pulpit for weeks and months. 

To compensate for the lack of public service, he occupied 
his time, when practicable, in the preparation of useful iDub- 
lications. Several volumes of " Sermons " were thus given 
to his people and the world, during the last twenty-five 
years of his life. His " Logic " was issued in 1724 ; his 
" Book of Catechisms," in 1728 ; his " Short View of Scrip- 
ture History," in 1730 ; his " Philosophic Essays," in 1732 ; 
his " Miscellaneous Thoughts in Prose and Verse," in 1734 ; 
his " Ruin and Recovery of Mankind," in 1740 ; and his 
"Improvement of the Mind," in 1741. Numerous Essays, 
on a great variety of subjects, theological, ecclesiastical, 
philosoi^hical, and political, were also issued by the godly 
recluse, — several of them on the jDliilosophy of the doctrine 
of the Trinity. 

He was honored, in 1728, by both the Universities of Ed- 
inburgh and Aberdeen, with the honorary degree of D.D. 
He took a deep interest in the progress of religion, both at 
home and abroad. He corresponded with a number of the 
leading clergymen of New England, including the Mathers, 
President Williams, and Jonathan Edwards ; also with Gov- 
ernor Belcher. He was profoundly moved by the news of 
" The Great Awakening " in New England, in 1740, and by 
the itinerant operations of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and 
their coadjutors. In Dr. Doddridge and his Academy, he 
took a very deep interest, as indeed in all that pertained 
to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. At Stoke 
Newington manor-house, where principally he resided from 
and after 1735, he was continually sought, for advice and 
counsel, and for the pleasure of his acquaintance, by all 
classes. Greatly revered and loved, as well as highly hon- 
ored, by an ever- widening circle of friends and admirers, in 
and out of the Establishment, and recognized everywhere 
as the Patriarch of the Dissenting clergy, he spent the last 



ISAAC WATTS. 643 

few years of liis life in this delightful retreat. Gradually he 
declined in strength, but not a cloud darkened his sky, not 
a doubt disturbed the serenity of his peace. He died on 
the afternoon of Friday, November 25, 1748, in the sev- 
enty-lifth year of his age. A great concourse of sincere 
mourners attended the body to its final resting-place in 
Bunhill Fields, and a monument to his memory was erected 
in Westminster Abbey. 

In a little more than forty years, he had issued fifty-two 
distinct publications. His collected "Works," edited by 
the Rev. Drs. David Jennings and Philip Doddridge, were 
published (1753) in six quarto volumes. They have fre- 
quently been reprinted. " I question," says Dr. Jennings, 
" whether any author before him did ever appear with rep- 
utation on such a variety of subjects as he has done, both 
as a prose-writer and as a poet. However, this I may ven- 
ture to say, that there is no man now living (1753), of whose 
works so many have been dispersed both at home and abroad, 
that are in such constant use, and translated into such a va- 
riety of languages." " Few men," says Dr. Johnson, " have 
left behind such purity of character, or such monuments 
of laborious piety. He has provided instruction for all 
ages, from those w^ho are lisping their first lessons, to the 
enlightened readers of Malebranche and Locke ; he has left 
neither corporeal nor spiritual nature unexamined ; he has 
taught the art of reasoning, and the science of the stars." 
" He was one of the first authors that taught the Dissenters 
to court attention by the graces of language. Whatever 
they had among them before, whether of learning or acute- 
ness, was commonly obscured and blunted by coarseness 
and inelegance of style. He showed them that zeal and 
purity might be expressed and enforced by polished dic- 
tion." 

He was not only a polished writer, but, in his best days, 
an impressive preacher. A thin, spare man, scarcely moi'e 
than five feet in stature, his " bodily presence" was "weak "; 
his forehead was low, his cheek-bones rather prominent, his 
eyes small and gray, and his face, in repose, of a heavy as- 



644 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

pect. But his voice was distinct and musical, lie was an 
adept in the art of pronunciation, his delivery was grave 
and solemn, and his manner indicative of a glowing zeal 
for God and the souls of men. He was one of the purest, 
as he was one of the most modest and amiable, of men. 

In the "Preface" to his "Miscellaneous Thoughts," 
March, 1734, he says : "I make no pretences to the name 
of a poet, or a polite writer, in an age wherein so many 
superior souls shine in their works through this nation." 
" I can boast of little more than an inclination and a wish 
that way." Yet Dr. Johnson truly says, in his "Lives of 
the English Poets" : " As a poet, had he been only a poet, he 
would probably have stood high among the authors with 
whom he is now associated." He was wont to attach to 
his printed sermons a hymn designed to accompany their 
delivery, and probably written at the same time. As a 
whole, they do not compare with his other hymns. Some 
of them have been taken to fill up the gaps in his hymn- 
book, occasioned by the transfer of several of his hymns to 
his Book of Psalms. 

"Oh ! that I knew the secret place," etc., 

was written to accompany a sermon (1721) on " Sins and 
Sorrows spread before God," from Job xxiii. 3, 4. 

" O happy soul, that lives on high," etc., 

follows two sermons (1721) on "The Hidden Life of a 
Christian," from Col. iii. 3. 

"What shall the dying sinner do ? " etc., 

accompanies his three sermons (1723) on " A Rational De- 
fence of the Gospel," from Rom. i. 16. 

"Jesus! thy blessings are not few," etc., 

also, is based on Rom. i. 16, and follows a sermon (1723) 
entitled, " I^one excluded from Hope. " 

"Am I a soldier of the cross," etc., 



ISAAC WATTS. 645 

grew out of a sermon (1727) on " Holy Fortitude, or Reme- 
dies against Fear," from 1 Cor. xvi. 13. 

"Father of glory! to thy name," etc., 

is the sequel to a sermon (1727) on " The Doctrine of the 
Trinity, and the Use of it; or, Access to the Father, 
through Christ, by the Holy Spirit," from Eph. ii. 18. 

The first two lines of the 100th Psalm, as commonly 
sung,— 

' ' Before Jehovah's awfiil throne, 

Ye nations! bow, with sacred joy," 

were written by the Rev. John Wesley, and substituted by 
him for the lines, as written by Watts, — 

" Nations! attend before his throne, 

With solemn fear, with sacred joy." 

Wesley, also, wrote the following stanza, — 

" He dies, the Friend of sinnei's dies ! 
Lo ! Salem's daughters weep around : 
A solemn darkness veils the skies, 

A sudden trembling shakes the ground ! " 

and substituted it for the stanza, as written by Watts, — 

' ' He dies, the heavenly Lover dies ! 
The tidings strike a doleful sound 
On my poor heart-strings ; deep he lies 
In the cold caverns of the ground." 

The hymn beginning with 

' ' Sinner ! oh ! why so thoughtless grown," 

is properly a reconstruction (by Dr. Rippon, 1787, prob- 
ably) of a lyric by Watts, beginning with 

' ' Oh ! why is man so thoughtless grown ? " 

entitled, "The hardy Soldier," and inscribed "to the 
Right Honorable John, Lord Cust, at the siege of Na- 
mur," and written, therefore, in July or August, 1695. 



646 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Many of his hymns give evidence of his love of natural 
scenery. The beautiful hymn, 

"There is a land of pure delight," etc., 

is said to have been written in his father's house at South- 
ampton, in a room overlooldng the river Itchen, with the 
charming Isle of Wight in the distance, and suggesting 
very naturally the couplet, 

" Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood, 
Stand dressed in liying green." 

Possibly, the " sweet fields " were a portion of " the green 
glades of the N^ew Forest," on the other side of the river 
and hai^bor. The quiet waters of the harbor, doubtless, 
suggested the familiar stanza, — 

" There shall I bathe my weary soul 
In seas of heavenly rest, 
Axid not a wave of trouble roll 
Across my peaceful breast." 



GEORGE WEISSEL. 

1590-1635. 

The Rev. George Weissel was a German Protestant 
divine of the early part of the seventeenth century. He 
was born (1590) at Domnau, Prussia. Yery few j)articulars 
of his life have been preserved. At an early age he devel- 
oped a remarkable poetic talent, and had the gift of inspir- 
ing others, Simon Dach particularly, with something of his 
own enthusiasm for the divine art. At the age of thirty- 
three, after long years of careful preparation for the cleri- 
cal profession, he was appointed to a ministerial charge in 
Konigsberg, Prussia. He was subjected to many trials 
during the " Thirty Years' War," and died in great peace 



CHARLES WESLEY. 647 

at Konigsberg, August 1, 1635. His celebrated and popular 
Advent Hymn, 

"Macht hoch das Thor, die Thiiren weit," etc., 
["Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates!" — Tr. C. Winkworth], 

was composed about 1630. 



CHARLES WESLEY. 

1708-1788. 

Charles Wesley, in the number of his compositions, 
greatly exceeds any other hymn-writer in the English lan- 
guage. To the Wesleyans of every name throughout the 
Christian world, he is the Father of Sacred Song. Thomas 
Jackson, his biographer, says : 

" It is as a writer of devotional poetry, that Mr. Charles 
Wesley will be permanently remembered, and that his 
name will live in the annals of the Church. In the com- 
position of hymns adapted to Christian worship, he certain- 
ly has no equal in the English language, and is perhaps su- 
perior to every other uninspired man that ever lived. It 
does not appear, that any person besides himself, in any 
section of the universal Church, has either written so many 
hymns, or hymns of such surpassing excellence." "Dur- 
ing the last fifty years [1841], few Collections of Hymns, 
designed for the use of evangelical congregations, whether 
belonging to the Established Church, or to the Dissenting 
bodies, have been made, without a considerable number of 
his compositions, which are admired in proportion as the 
people are spiritually-minded. His hymns are, therefore, 
extensively used in secret devotion, in family- worship, and 
in public religious assemblies. Every Sabbath-day, myil- 
ads of voices are lifted up, and utter, in the hallowed strains 
which he has supplied, the feelings of x)enitence, of faith, 



648 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

of grateful love, and joyous hope, with which the Holy 
Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, has inspired them ; and 
are thus in a course of training for the more perfect wor- 
ship of heaven." "As long as the language in which 
they are written is understood, and enlightened piety is 
cherished, the hjnnns of this venerable man will be used 
as a handmaid to devotion," 

Charles Wesley was born, December 18, 1708, in the 
humble rectory of Epworth, Lincolnshire. His father, 
Samuel Wesley {q. v.), was the Rector of the parish. His 
mother, Susannah, was a daughter of the Rev. Samuel An- 
nesley, LL.D., one of the most eminent divines among the 
Dissenters, and whose father was a brother of Arthur, the 
iirst Earl of Anglesea. Charles was the youngest, save one 
(Kezia), of nineteen children, of whom only ten survived 
their infancy, — seven daughters and three sons, Samuel, 
John, and Charles. 

Such was the improvidence, in some respects, of the 
father, so numerous were his dejiendents, and so small his 
income, that their condition was exceedingly straitened, 
and their struggles ^^4th j^overty seldom intermitted. They 
had scarcely any intercourse with Dissenters, and were 
rigidly attached to the Church of England. The father 
had become extensively known as a ready writer of poetry, 
and the mother was a strenuous Jacobite. 

The utmost method and system prevailed in the house- 
hold, and both he and his brother, John, were trained to 
strict habits of regularity. The Iirst eight years of his life 
were passed at home, under the tuition of his mother. 
John, five years his senior, had been sent (1714) to the 
Charterhouse School, in London ; and, two years later 
(1716), Charles was entered at Westminster School, of 
which his eldest brother, Samuel (then about twenty-five 
years old, and by whom he was at first supported there), 
was one of the teachers. 

While the boy was thus laying t\\e foundation of his 
later eminence, Garret AVesley, or Wellesley, a gentleman 
of large fortune residing at Daugan, Ireland, and who was 



CHARLES WESLEY. 649 

M. P. for the connty of Meath, havina: no issue, wrote to the 
Rev. Samuel Wesley, of Ep worth, offering, if he had a son 
named Charles, to adopt him as his heir. As the boy M^as 
yet too young to answer for himself, his Irish patron, for 
several years; contributed to his support. At length, Mr, 
Gr, Wesley in j)erson made the offer to the boy, who, on 
sonsideration, gratefully declined it. Whereupon Mr. 
Wesley bequeathed his estates with his name to his cousin, 
Richard Colley, who, in 1746, was raised to the peerage as 
Baron Mornington ; his son, GaiTet, in 1760, was created 
Earl of Mornington, and was the father of Arthur, the re- 
nowned Duke of Wellington. 

Charles, in 1721, was admitted as one of the King's 
scholars in St. Peter's College, and his expenses were borne 
by the foundation. His stay at Westminster was prolonged 
ten years, during which he was thoroughly fitted for the 
University. In 1726, being in his eighteenth year, he was 
elected to Christchurch College, Oxford, as his brother, 
John, had been five years before. The latter, having now 
graduated, had just obtained a fellowship in Lincoln Col- 
lege. "My first year at college," says Charles, "I lost in 
diversions; the next I set myself to study." "He pur- 
sued," says John, " his studies diligently, and led a regular, 
harmless life ; but, if I spoke to him about religion, he 
would warmly answer, — ' What ? would you have me to be 
a saint all at once ? ' and would hear no more. " John left 
Oxford in August, 1727, and did not return until Novem- 
ber, 1729. Early in his third year, Charles entered (1729) 
upon a methodical and serious mode of life. " Diligence," 
he says, " led me into serious thinking ; I went to the 
weekly sacrament, and persuaded two or three young stu- 
dents to accompany me, and to observe the method of study 
prescribed by the statutes of the University. This gained 
me the harmless name of Methodist. In half a year [after 
this] my brother left his curacy at Epwortli, and came to 
our assistance. We then proceeded regularly in our studies, 
and in doing what good we could to the bodies and souls 
of men." 



650 THE POETS OF THE CHUKCH. 

Charles Wesley, it thus appears, was the first " Method 
ist." This was in the spring of 1729, to which date, 
therefore, the rise of " Methodism," as a great ecclesiastical 
movement, and a religions denomination, is to be traced. 
Charles began it, and John controlled and shaped it. Be- 
sides the two brothers Wesley, the little band included 
only William Morgan and Robert Kirkham, Charles took 
his degree of B.A., the same year, and presently began to 
take pupils — still prosecuting his studies for orders. His 
father died April 25, 1735, and the family home at Epworth- 
was broken up. Charles had graduated, M.A., in 1732, and 
had continued his work as a tutor. When John, in 1735, 
concluded to go to Georgia as a missionary, Charles was in- 
duced to accompany him, as secretary to Governor Ogle- 
thorpe. Though he had "exceedingly dreaded entering 
into holy orders," his scruples were now overcome, and he 
was ordained, in September, a deacon, by the Rev. Dr. John 
Potter, Bishop of Oxford, and, the Sunday following, priest, 
by the Rev. Dr. Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London. 

Mr. Wesley embarked, October 14, 1735, and sailed from 
Gravesend, on the 22d, but did not leave Cowes until De- 
cember 10, arriving, after a stormy passage, February 5, 
1736, in the Savannah river. He was stationed at Frederica. 
After a stay of but little more than six months, he sailed 
from Charleston, August 16th, in the London Galley^ for 
London. The vessel was compelled, September 24, to put 
in at Boston, Mass., where he remained a month, reaching 
England, after a most perilous voyage, December 3, 1736. 
The year following he spent at London, Oxford, and Tiver- 
ton, visiting friends, and waiting on the Board of Trade. 
In the spring of 1738, he was prostrated by severe illness. 
Heretofore, he had espoused the doctrines of the Rev. Will- 
iam Law, and had rested in a legal righteousness. During 
his illness, under the instructions of the godly Moravian, 
Peter Bohler (who had selected him as his English teacher), 
and those of his simple-minded host at London, Mr. Bray, 
a brazier, he was brought to renounce his self -righteousness, 
and to obtain joy and peace in believing, on Whitsunday^ 



CHAELES WESLEY. 65^. 

May 21, 1738. To this date he looked back ever afterwards, 
as the era of his conversion. 

Recovered from his illness, he became, at the close of 
July, a curate for Mr. Stonehouse, the Vicar of St. Mary's, 
Islington, who subsequently became a Moravian. Meeting 
with much opposition from a portion of the parish and his 
diocesan, he continued there only eight or nine months. 
Following the example of Whitefield, he now resorted to 
the fields, and, June 24, 1739, he preached to thousands at 
Moorfields. From this time forth, he gave himself, with 
all his powers, to the work of an evangelist — going every- 
where, all over the Idngdom and the principality of Wales, 
extending his labors into Ireland, with manifold success, 
and no small tribulation. In all these respects he vied 
with his elder and more noted brother, John, whom, in 
some respects, he excelled as a popular x^reacher. 

On one of his tours, he came to Bristol, July 31, 1745, 
where and when he formed the acquaintance of Marma- 
duke Gwynne, Esq., of Garth, sixteen miles from Brecon, 
South Wales, — a gentleman of fortune, of high social posi- 
tion, and a magistrate, who had been converted to Method- 
ism, under the preaching of Howell Harris. Some two 
years later, Mr. Wesley, on his way to Ireland, visited Mr. 
Gw^ynne at Garth, and became enamored with his daughter, 
Sarah. Repeated visits of the itinerant preacher to Garth, 
and of Mr. Gwynne with his daughter to London, followed, 
resulting in Wesley's marriage, April 8th, 1749, to Miss 
Gwynne, by his brother, John. The bride was twenty-three 
years old, and her husband in his forty-first year. Tlie 
marriage was in all respects suitable, congenial, and of 
happy results. Eight children were born to them, of whom 
only the youngest three, Charles, Sarah, and Samuel, sur- 
vived their infancy. 

At the close of 1756, Mr. Wesley ceased to itinerate, con- 
fining his labors mostly to Bristol, the home of his family^ 
and London, to which he made frequent ofiic'al visits. Mrs, 
Gumley [Miss Degge], the aunt of Lady Robert TJanners^ 
in 1771, presented Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wesley with a 



652 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

twenty years' lease of her town residence, richly furnished ; 
which henceforth became their home. It was in Chester- 
field Street, Marylebone, near Regent's Park, and three 
miles from " The Foundry," John's London home. In 
1777, the lease of the Foundry expired, and the commodi- 
ous City Road Chapel was built. In these two renowned 
localities, or in some other of the city chapels, Mr. Wesley, 
when not disabled by disease, ordinarily preached twice on 
the Sabbath, during the remainder of his life. Though of 
a frail body, and a life-long victim of disease, he was spared 
to a good old age, — dying at his house in Chesterfield Street, 
Saturday, March 29, 1788, in his eightieth year. His re- 
mains were interred in Marylebone churchyard. 

Like his brother, John, and the great h^-mnist, AVatts, 
he was considerably below the middle stature, and, though 
stouter than John, not at all cori^ulent. He was short- 
sighted, abrupt, and impetuous, without affectation. His 
simplicity, integrity, frankness, and amiability were 
marked. In the words inscribed on the memorial Tablet, 
City Road Chapel, "as a preacher, he was eminent for 
abilities, zeal, and usefulness, being learned without pride, 
and pious without ostentation." 

Charles Welsey was the son of a poet, and the younger 
brother of a poet. Yet he seems not to have iDractised the 
divine art himself until long after the completion of his 
University career, and his entrance on the work of the min- 
istry. His first hymn, so far as known, is his " Hymn for 
Midnight," beginning with 

" While midnight shades the earth o'erspread," 

and written early in 1737, in his twenty-seventh year. The 
experience of divine grace, to which he ever afterwards re- 
ferred as the date of his conversion and true regeneration. 
May 21, 1738, stirred up within him the gift of holy song. 
From that day until the very day of his death, this gift 
was in lively and almost constant exercise. He seemed to 
think, to speak, to write, in poetic numbers, with a facility 
and propriety, of which there are to be found but few ex 
amples. 



CHARLES WESLEY. 653 

A coinj)ilation of seventy psalms and hymns was pub- 
lished by the brothers, John and Charles, anonymously, in 
1738. JN'one of these were composed by Charles Wesley ; 
33 were from the pen of Dr. Watts, and 13 from Tate and 
Brady's Version. A volume of 223 pages and 139 hymns, 
entitled, " Hymns and Sacred Poems," followed in ljg39, the / 
most of it original ; fifty of the pieces were written by 
Charles, among which were : 

"Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day," etc., 
"Hail the day that sees him rise," etc., 

and 

" Hark! the herald angels sing," etc. 

The following year (1740), another volume of 209 pages 
and 96 hymns, with the same title, made its appearance, in 
which were first issued : 

"Christ! whose glory fills the skies," etc., 
"Depth of mercy, can there be," etc., 
"Jesus, Lover of my soul ! " etc.. 



and 



Oh! for a thousand tongues to sing," etc. 



The last of these hymns was written " On the Anniversary 
of" his "Conversion"; having, in the original, eighteen 
stanzas. An enlarged edition of the " Collection " of 1739, 
containing 96 hymns, was issued in 1741, and one, still larger, 
in 1743. The latter edition included several of Charles 
Wesley's hymns, among them his Ascension hymn, begin- 
ning with 

"Our Lord is risen from the dead." 

In 1741, he published, also, his 38 " Hymns on God's Ever- 
lasting Love," of which an enlarged edition was issued in 
1756, to which the Church is indebted for that admira- 
ble hymn, 

" Sinners ! turn, why will ye die ? " etc. 

A fourth volume of 155 " Hymns and Sacred Poems " was 
brought out in 1742, in which appeared : 



654 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Oh! for a heart to praise my God," etc., 
" Oh! that my load of sin were gone," etc., 

and 

"Vain, delusive world ! adieu ! " etc. 

" An Elegy on the Death of Robert Jones, Esq.," in abont 
600 lines, by Charles Wesley, bears date, 1742, and was in- 
cluded (1744) in the third volume of Mr. Wesley's " Collec- 
tion of [213] Moral and Sacred Poems from the most Cele- 
brated English Authors," in which also appeared several 
other pieces from the pen of Charles. Eighteen " Hymns 
for the Nativity " appeared in 1744, including 

"Come, thou long-expected Jesus ! " etc., 

and 

"Light of those whose dreary dwelling," etc. 

His eleven " Hymns for the Watchnight " followed ; also, 
his eleven "Funeral Hymns," a tract of 24 pages. The 
same year (1744) Mr. Wesley published his 33 "Hymns 
for Times of Trouble and Persecution," one of which was 

"Ye servants of God ! your Master proclaim," etc. 

The " Hymns on the Lord's Supper " (1745) were one hun- 
dred and sixty-six in number, among which are found 

"Happy the souls to Jesus joined," etc., 
' ' Jesus ! we thus obey, " etc. , 

and 

"Lamb of God ! whose bleeding love," etc. 

• 

His seven " Hymns for Ascension Day," and his sixteen 
" Hymns for our Lord's Resurrection," appeared in 1746. 
The same year he produced 32 " Hymns of Petition and 
Thanksgiving for the Promise of the Father"; seven 
"Hymns for the Public Thanksgiving Day, October 9, 
1746"; "Gloria Patri, etc., or [24] Hymns to the Trinity"; 
and 26 " Graces before and after Meat"; — all of them small 
tracts. " Hymns for those that Seek, and those that Have, 
Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ," commonly 



CHAELES WESLEY. 655 

called " Redemption Hymns," came forth in 1747, and con- 
tained 

" Come, sinners! to the gospel feast," etc., 
and 

"Love divine, all loves excelling! " etc. 

These were followed, in 1749, by two volumes of 455 
" Hymns and Sacred Poems," all of them the production 
of Charles Wesley, including 

"Jesus! let thy pitying eye," etc., 
"Jesus, Lord! we look to thee," etc., 
" Lo ! on a narrow neck of land," etc., 
" O Love divine! how sweet thou art," etc., 
"Soldiers of Christ! arise," etc., 



and 



■Thou hidden Source of calm repose," etc. 



Seven " Hymns for New Year's Day, 1750," came out at 
the close of the year 1749, and a succession of such Hymns 
appeared from year to year. In the issue " for New Year's 
Day, 1750," he first produced his splendid Jubilee Hjinn, 

" Blow ye the trumpet, hlow," etc., 

written, undoubtedly, for the Jubilee year, 1750. 

Nineteen " Hymns occasioned by the Earthquake, March 
8, 1750," speedily followed that event. Then came "An 
Epistle to the Reverend Mr. John Wesley," and " An Epis- 
tle to the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield," both in 1755 ; 
followed by seventeen " Hymns for the Year 1756 : Par- 
ticularly for the Feast Day, February 6"; and, in 1758, by 
forty " Hymns of Intercession for all Mankind," one of 
which is 

"Lo! he comes, with clouds descending," etc. 

Another volume of 43 "Funeral Hymns" was issued in 
1759, among which is found that charming production, 

" Come, let us join our friends above," etc. ; 

followed, the same year, by eight " Hymns on the Expected 
Invasion," and fifteen " Hymns to be used on the Tlianks- 



e5Q THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. ^ 

giving Day, November 29, 1759, and after it." In 1761, ap- 
peared liis 134 " Hymns for those to v^^hom Christ is All in 
all." Two volumes, containing 2,030 " Short Hymns on 
Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures," all of them by 
Charles Wesley, were published in 1762. From this over- 
flowing treasury, is derived 

' ' A charge to keep I have, " etc. 

The next year (1763), he published his 100 " Hymns for Chil- 
dren"; and, four years later (1767), came forth a volume of 
182 " HjTnns on the Trinity "; and another of 188 " Hymns 
for the Use of Families, and on Various Occasions." In 
the autumn of 1770, he produced "A Hymn on the Death 
of the Rev. George AVhitefield," and an " Elegy on the late 
Reverend George Whitefield, M.A." The removal of this 
apostolic preacher seems to have suggested the publication 
of a small volume of forty hymns, in 1772, with the title, 
" Preparation for Death, in several Hjnmns." 

Nothing further appeared from his pen until 1778, when 
he published his "Prayer for the Life of the Rev. John 
Wesley." His latest productions were : thirteen " HjTnns 
written in the Time of the ^iumults, June, 1780"; 32 
" Hymns for the Nation " (1782), a tract of 47 pages ; and 
ten "Prayers for Condemned Malefactors" (1785), in 12 
pages. 

About a score of his hymns appeared in prose produc- 
tions issued by himself and brother, at various periods ; 
and about 2,000 more w^ere left in manuscript (unpublished 
at the time of his death), some few of which have, from 
time to time, adorned the pages of Methodist and other 
periodicals. His " Poetical Version of nearly the whole 
Book of the Psalms of David," edited by the Rev. Henry 
Fish, was published in 1854. He is said to have written 
7,000 hymns, of which, those that he published "would 
occupy about 3,000 closely-printed pages." Hence Mont- 
gomery says of him : " He was probably the author of a 
greater number of comj)ositions of this kind, with less va- 
riety of matter or manner, than any other man of genius 



CHARLES WESLEY. 657 

that can be named." " It is probable," he adds, " that the 
severer taste of his brother, the Rev. John Wesley, greatly 
tempered the extravagance of Charles, i)runed his luxuri- 
ances, and restrained his impetuosity, in those hymns of 
his, which form a large proportion of the Methodist Col- 
lection." 

In his " Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People 
called Methodists," John Wesley says, in the Preface, 
dated, "October 20, 1779": "In these Hymns there is no 
doggerel ; no botches ; nothing put in to patch up the 
rhyme ; no feeble expletives. Here is nothing turgid or 
bombast, on the one hand, or low and creeping on the oth- 
er. Here are no cant expressions ; no words without mean- 
ing." "Here are, allow me to say, both the purity, the 
strength, and the elegance of the English language ; and, 
at the same time, the utmost simplicity and plainness, 
suited to every capacity." This applies, of course, to the 
hymns of Charles Wesley, that are included in the " Col- 
lection " of 1780. 

The Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke, in a letter to his wife, dated 
October 11, 1819, says : " I write this, my dear Mary, in a 
situation that would make your soul freeze with horror ; 
it is on the last projecting point of rock of the ' Land's End,' 
upwards of two hundred feet perpendicular above the sea, 
which is raging and roaring most tremendously, threaten- 
ing destruction to myself and the narrow i^oint of rock on 
which I am now sitting. On my right hand is the Bristol 
Channel, and before me the vast Atlantic Ocean. There is 
not one inch of land, from the place on which my feet rest, 
to the vast American continent ! This is the place, though 
probably not so far advanced on the tremendous cliff, where 
Charles Wesley composed those fine lines, — 

' Lo ! on a narrow neck of land, 
Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,' etc. 

The point of rock itself is about three feet broad at its ter- 
mination, and the fearless adventurer will here place his 
foot, in order to be able to say that he has been on the 
42 



658 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

uttermost inch of land in the British emi)ire westward; 
and on this spot the foot of your husband now rests, while 
he writes the following words in the same hymn : 

' O God ! my inmost soul convert, 
And deeply on my thoughtful heart 

Eternal things impress ; 
Give me to feel their solemn weight, 
And tremble on the brink of fate, 
And wake to righteousness.' " 

The hymns of Wesley were very often suggested by in- 
cidents in his personal history. Thus, 

"See how great a flame aspires," etc., 

was written "after preaching to the Newcastle colliers," 
in praise to God for the wonderful success of his work 
among these hardy sons of toil. " The imagery of the first 
verse," says Stevenson, " was suggested by the furnace- 
blasts and burning pit-heaps, which even now are scattered 
thickly over the district for some miles around Newcastle- 
on-Tyne, and which illuminate the whole neighborhood." 

The latest effort of his muse was made on his dying bed. 
" Having been silent and quiet for some time," says Jack- 
son, " he called Mrs. Wesley to him, and requested her to 
write the following lines at his dictation : 

' In age and feebleness extreme. 
Who shall a sinful world redeem ? 
Jesus ! my only hope thou art. 
Strength of my failing flesh and heart ; 
Oh ! could I catch a smile from thee, 
And drop into eternity.' " 



JOHN WESLEY. 659 

JOHN WESLEY. 

1703-1791. 

JoHwr Wesley, the Father and Founder of Methodism, 
was the son of the Rev. Samuel Wesley {q. -».), Rector 
of Epworth, Lincolnshire, England. He was born in the 
thatched rectory of that lowly parish, June 17, 1703. 
His mother, Susannah, was the daughter of the distin- 
guished Puritan, the Rev. Samuel Annesley, LL.D. John 
was her fourth son, the second and third sons having died 
in infancy. Samuel, the eldest son, was thirteen years 
older, and Charles, the youngest, five and a half years 
younger, than John. When the parsonage was burned 
down (1709), John very narrowly escaped an early death. 
Such was his devoutness and thoughtfulness as a child, 
that his father admitted him to the Lord's Supper at eight 
years of age. 

He Avas educated, until his eleventh year, by his accom- 
plished mother. Through the patronage of the Duke of 
Buckingham, he was admitted, January 28, 1714, to a schol- 
arship in the Charterhouse School, London, whither he now 
removed. In 1716, his brother, Samuel, having finished 
his undergraduate course, at Oxford, became a teacher 
at Westminster School, and acted as guardian of the boy, 
John, who, part of the time, was a member of his family. 
Though John Wesley "entered the School as the poor 
child of an impoverished parish priest," by his diligence and 
progress in knowledge, he obtained the high respect of his 
teachers and companions in study. In his seventeenth 
year, he was elected, June 24, 1720, to a scholarship in 
Christchurch College, Oxford, worth £40 per annum.. 
Here, also, he distinguished himself by his literary profi- 
ciency. He is described, at the expiration of four years, 
as " the very sensible and acute collegian, a young fellow 
of the finest classical taste, of the most liberal and manly 
sentiments." 



660 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Not until his twenty-second year, did he determine to 
comply with his father's mshes, and enter holy orders 
He had thus far been only a nominal Christian. The read- 
ing of " The Christian Pattern " (by Thomas a Kempis), and 
" Rules of Holy Living and Dying " (by Jeremy Taylor), 
and the companionship of a godly friend, led to an entire 
recast of his daily life. He kept a strict watch over his 
thoughts and actions, communicated (at the Lord's Supper) 
every week, and strove to be a Christian in all things. 
Having pursued a suitable course of theological study, 
and taken his degree of B.A., he was ordained a deacon, 
September 19, 1725, by the Rev. Dr. John Potter, Bishop 
of Oxford. He preached, for the first time, a few days la- 
ter, at South Leigh, about ten miles west of Oxford. He 
was elected, March 17, 1726, a Fellow of Lincoln College. 
The summer following he spent with his parents ; and, re- 
turning to his college in September, he was chosen, IsTovem- 
ber 7, Greek Lecturer and Moderator of the Classes. He 
graduated, M. A., February 14, 1727, with a high reputation 
for scholarship. 

Leaving Oxford, August 4, 1727, he returned to Epworth, 
and officiated, both there and at Wroote, as his father's 
chaplain, until November 22, 1729. He was ordained priest, 
September 22, 1728, by Bishop Potter, at Oxford. On his 
return to Oxford, in November, 1729, " The Godly Club," 
referred to in the previous sketch, had been formed by his 
brother Charles and two other friends, to whom had already 
been applied, sportively, the name of "Methodists." John 
gladly united with them, and became the recognized leader 
of the "Movement." Early in 1730, he obtained a curacy 
(for three or six months), about eight miles from Oxford. 
His tutorship and his studies engrossed the most of his 
time, which was spent after the most exact method. In 
this he was the more confirmed by William Law's " Chris- 
tian Perfection," and his " Serioiis Call to a Holy Life," 
both of which he read with avidity. 

His father died, April 25, 1735 ; and, in September of the 
same year, John and Charles Wesley concluded to cast in 



JOHN WESLEY. 661 

their lot with Oglethorpe's colonists in Georgia. They era- 
barked, October 14, 1735, but did not set sail until Decem- 
ber 10th. They derived great spiritual benefit from the 
pious Moravians, with whom they crossed the ocean. John 
Wesley was stationed at Savannah, but ere long, by reason 
of a love affair, was involved in great trouble and litigation. 
He concluded to return home, and set sail, December 22, 
1737, arriving at Deal, England, February 1, 1738. 

Soon after his arrival at London (February 3d), he met 
with the Moravian, Peter Bohler, and, by frequent conver- 
sations with this excellent man, became convinced that his 
religious experience w^as both defective and erroneous. He 
connected himself with the Moravian society meeting in 
Fetter Lane, and. May 24, 1738, he obtained " joy and peace 
in believing." This he regarded as the date of his conver- 
sion. He evidently became, from this period, a new man, 
and entered upon a life of holy faith and ardent zeal, to 
which he had previously been a stranger. In June of the 
same year, he left England, in order to visit the Moravian 
head-quarters at Herrnhut, Saxony, returning to London 
in September, having, in the meantime, conferred with 
Count Zinzendorf, as to the views and policy of "The 
Brethren." 

In April, 1739, Mr. Whitefield having already set the ex- 
am j)le of open-air or field-preaching, at Bristol, Mr. Wesley 
went down to help him, and commenced his field-preaching 
career. He had already been excluded from the pulpits of 
most of th^ churches of London, and he seemed to be shut 
up to this course of labor. A great work w^as accomplished 
among the colliers of Kingswood. In the autumn, he re- 
turned to London, preached to thousands in Moorfields, 
Sunday, November 11, purchased the old "Foundry" 
building, near by, had it fitted up, and made it the head- 
quarters of Methodism. A separation from the Moravians 
followed, and the new society entered upon its grand career. 

John Wesley then and thus began his truly evangelistic 
labors, as an Itinerant preacher. From London and Bris- 
tol as the centres of his operations, he went everywhere 



662 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

throughout England and Wales, with occasional excur- 
sions to Scotland and Ireland, preaching the word of life 
wherever he could get an audience, often encountering 
much opposition and even personal violence ; and inaugura- 
ted a great religious revival, affecting all classes of society 
in and out of " The Church," and extending itself eventu- 
ally throughout the world. 

Ordinarily, and until the infirmities of age compelled the 
use of a chaise, he travelled on horseback, or journeyed on 
foot. During the fifty-three years of his wonderful career 
as an itinerant preacher, he travelled, it is thought, aboiit 
225,000 miles, or more than 4,000 miles yearly. He seldom 
preached less than two sermons daily, and often delivered 
three or four sermons or addresses the same day. The 
whole number of his preaching-services has been estimated 
at not less than 40,000, besides " an infinite number of ex- 
hortations to the societies after preaching, and in other oc- 
casional meetings." He lived to see the little brotherhood 
of 1739 expanded, in 1791, to 216 Circuits, served by 511 
preachers, and counting 120,000 members, 

Mr. Wesley retained his Fellowship in Lincoln College, 
Oxford, until February 18, 1751, when he forfeited it by 
his marriage to Mrs. Vizelle, a widow with four children 
and a considerable fortune, residing in Threadneedle Street, 
London. It proved to be an unhappy connection, and was 
practically teiminated, by her leaving him (1771) ten years 
before her death. 

Until past four-score, he seemed scarcely conscious of any 
decline of vigor ; but early in 1790, he felt himself to be 
"an old man, decayed from head to foot," He took cold, 
February 17, 1791, after preaching at Lambeth. On the 
23d, he preached his last sermon, in the dining-room of 
a magistrate, at Leatherhead, eighteen miles from London, 
on the text, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found." 
Returning home to London, he lingered until AVednesday, 
IMarch 2, 1791, when he rested from his labors on earth. 
His remains were interred in a vault, behind the Chapel in 
City Road. He left no children. 



JOHN WESLEY. 663 

Like his brother, Wesley was below the medium size, 
spare, well-proportioned, muscular, and strong. He had a 
clear, smooth forehead, an aquiline nose, and piercing 
bright eyes. His complexion was fresh, and his step firm 
and strong. He was a pattern of neatness and simi^licity. 
His benevolence was remarkable. Everything that he 
earned by his numerous publications, he expended on the 
Lord's work. In general scholarship and knowledge, he 
had few superiors. His familiarity with the original Greek 
of the New Testament was remarkable. In the pulijit, his 
" attitude was graceful and easy ; his action calm, natural, 
pleasing, and expressive ; and his voice, not loud, but clear 
and manly." Conciseness, brevity, and perspicuity char- 
acterized his style as a writer. 

He made great and constant use of the press ; and won- 
derful as were his labors as a preacher, he was continually 
wiiting, compiling, and publishing. His "Works" were 
published, shortly after his death, in thirty-two volumes 
octavo. He made numerous abridgments of voluminous 
publications, for the use of his "Societies." His "Chris- 
tian Library; or Extracts and Abridgments, etc., from 
various Writers," was published in fifty volumes. The 
Wesleyan Literature to which he gave birth is of immense 
proportions. 

As a poet, John Wesley, though correct and classical, 
does not compare with his brother Charles. While in col- 
lege, he indulged in versification as a recreation, but con- 
fined himself almost exclusively to translations from other 
languages. On the voyage to Savannah, in the winter of 
1735-6, he made several translations of German hymns, 
some of which were included in the Collection of seventy 
" Psalms and Hymns " published (1738) by John Wesley, 
for the use of the Society worshiping in Fetter Lane, Lon- 
don. The progress of the work of grace at Bristol called 
for a larger book, and, in 1739, he published 139 "Hymns 
and Sacred Poems by John and Charles Wesley." The 
" Foundry " having been opened the following winter, he 
issued, in 1740, another volume of 96 " Hymns and Sacred 



eU THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

Poems by John and Charles Wesley. " [See Chakles Wes 

LEY.] 

The small " Collection " of 1738 was enlarged, in 1741, to 
165 hymns to meet the wants of the Religious Societies. 
In 1742, John Wesley published a " Collection of [24] Ger- 
man Hymns"; and "A Collection of Thirty-six Tunes set 
to Music, as they are sung at the Foundry." In 1743, an- 
other edition of the "Collection," containing 138 hymns, 
was issued ; followed, in 1744, by a " Collection of Moral 
and Sacred Poems," in three volumes. Again, in 1753, an- 
other compilation appeared, as "Hymns and Spiritual 
Songs intended for the Use of Christians of all Denomina- 
tions." He published, also, in 1761, 132 "Select Hymns 
with Tunes annext." These several compilations were the 
work of John Wesley, and were designed chiefly for the 
use of the " Religious Societies " in his Connection. The 
Collection of 1753, enlarged from time to time, had reached 
the twenty-first edition in 1777, and was universally used 
by the Methodists in England. This was superseded, in 
1780, by an entirely new Compilation of 520 pages, and 560 
Hymns, entitled, " A Collection of Hymns for the Use of 
the People called Methodists," — a Collection, which, with 
a " Supplement " of 209 Hymns published in 1830, is the 
authorized Hymn-Book of the Wesleyans in England to 
this day. 

In all these " Collections " were included hymns transla- 
ted from the German, the most of which are properly cred- 
ited to John Wesley. Some of them have lost nothing by 
aj)pearing in an English dress. Among the few original 
hymns from his pen, the most remarkable is " The Chris- 
tian Pilgrim," of which the following three (out of seven) 
stanzas are exceedingly descriptive : 

' ' How happy is the pilgrim's lot, 
How free from every auxious thought, 

From worldly hope aud fear ! 
Confined to neither court nor cell, 
His soul disdains on earth to dwell, 

He only sojourns here. 



SAMUEL WESLEY. 

No foot of land do I possess, 
No cottage in this wilderness , 

A poor way-faring man, 
I lodge awhile in tents below, 
Or gladly wander to and fro. 

Till I my Canaan gain. 

Nothing on earth I call my own ; 
A stranger, to the world unknown, 

I all then* goods despise ; 
I trample on their whole delight. 
And seek a comitry out of sight, 

A country in the skies. " 



SAMUEL WESLEY. 

1662-1735. 

The father of the " Founders of Methodism " was born 
and bred a Puritan. He was the son of a non-conforming 
divine, whose father was ejected from his parish the year of 
his grandson's birth. The Puritan spirit, inherited from 
his ancestry, gave form and character to his own mental 
constitution. "Wesley, the father," says Isaac Taylor, 
" had renounced non-conformity and had cordially surren- 
dered himself to the guidance and control of the Church : 
he had put off the dissident, so far as he could, or as far as 
he was conscious of it ; but he could not lay down that non- 
conformity which belonged to the inner man. A stern 
moral force, and a religious individuality, went with him 
into the Church, nor left him as he entered it ; and it 
showed itself as an inherited quality in his sons." 

Samuel Wesley's grandfather, Bartholomew Westly, was 
born about 1595, married in 1619, having been liberally ed- 
ucated at the University and made himself familiar with 
physic as well as divinity, and was presented (about 1640) 
to the living of Charmouth, a village at the base of two 



QQ6 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

high hills in the southwestern extremity of Dorsetshire, 
England. The small living of Catherston, an adjacent vil- 
lage, was, as early as 1650, annexed to the former. He was 
ejected from both in August, 1662, and supported himself 
and family subsequently, until his death, by the practice 
of medicine. He survived his son, John, — dying, however, 
soon after. 

John Westley, the son of Bartholomew, was born about 
1635, was dedicated to the ministry from his infancy, and 
received a corresponding education in his boyhood. After 
a due course of preparation, he was entered a scholar of 
New Inn Ha]l, Oxford, about 1653, graduating, B.A., 1657. 
As he was a member of the Independent ChuMch of Mel- 
combe Regis, near Weymouth, in the southern extremity 
of Dorsetshire, and was ordained by them as a preacher, it 
is quite probable that Melcombe was his native place. 
Having exercised his ministry successfully at Melcombe, 
Radipole, Tnrnwood, and at sea, he succeeded old Mr. 
Tobias Walton, May, 1658, at Winterbourne Whitchurch, 
near Blandford, Dorsetshire. He married a niece of the 
Rev. Dr. Thomas Fuller, the well-known author of " The 
Church History of Britain." They had two sons, Matthew 
and Samuel, and several daughters. After the Restoration, 
he was subjected to many trials, and even imprisonment 
for a short season. In August, 1662, he was ejected from 
Winterbourne. A kind friend offered him a very good 
house, rent free, at Preston, near Weymouth, wdiither he 
removed the next May ; and there, with short interruptions 
by persecution and imprisonment, he resided until his de- 
cease, about 1677. 

Samuel Westley was the younger son of the Rev. John 
Westley, and was born, November, 1662, at Winterbourne 
Whitchurch, just after his father's ejectment. His elder 
brother, Matthew, became a surgeon. The days of his boy- 
hood were spent at Preston. At a suitable age he w^as sent 
to the Free Grammar School at Dorchester, where he con- 
tinued until his father's death, at whicli time, under the 
instruction of Mr. Henry Dolling, he had nearly completed 



SAMUEL WESLEY. 667 

his preparation for the University. Being a youth of con- 
siderable promise, he was sent to London, March 8, 1678, 
without his mother's application or charges, by some of the 
Dissenting party, to be entered at one of their academies. 
After spending a few months at a grammar-school there, 
he was entered at a private academy taught by the E,ev. 
Edward Veal, an ejected minister, then residing at Stepney, 
in the eastern suburbs of London. Here he remained two 
years, when he was sent to the academy of the Rev. Charles 
Morton, at Newington Grreen. Two years were spent with 
Mr. Morton, who shortly after (1686) emigrated to America, 
and became pastor of the Church of Charlestown, Mass., and 
Vice-President of Harvard College. While at Stepney, he 
attended the ministry of the eminent Stephen Charnock. 
" Before the close of 1680, he had taken down more than 
fifty of his sermons, and many hundreds of others." 

Having finished the course of study at Mr. Morton's, and 
having determined to quit the Dissenters and conform, he 
walked to Oxford, and entered as a servitor [" pauper scho- 
laris"] of Exeter College. He took his degree of B.A., 
June 19, 1688. Returning to London, he was ordained, 
August 7, 1688, a deacon, by the Rev. Dr. Tliomas Sprat, 
Bishop of Rochester, at his palace, Bromley ; and, Febru- 
ary 24, 1689, a priest, by the Rev. Dr. Henry Compton, 
Bishop of London, in St. Andrew's Church, Holborn. The 
same year, he married Susannah, the youngest daughter of 
the eminent Dissenting divine, Samuel Annesley, LL.D., 
who herself had some years before conformed. He ob- 
tained a curacy for a year, served one year as chaplain 
aboard the fleet, and then obtained another curacy for two 
years. He was then presented, through the influence of 
the Marquis of Normanby, with the humble living of South 
Ormsby, in Lincolnshire. 

In 1685, while at Oxford, he had published a face- 
tious work, entitled, " Maggots, or Poems on several Sub- 
jects never before handled," which obtained for him con- 
siderable notoriety. John Dunton, his brother-in-law, 
printed it, and encouraged him to write for the press. In 



668 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

this way he had supported himself in the University. In 
company with Dunton and Richard Sault, he conducted 
(1690-1696) Tlie Athenian Gazette^ a sprightly publication. 
His facility of versification was so great, that " he used to 
write two hundred couplets a day." He published, in 1693, 
" The Life of our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ ; 
an Heroic Poem, in ten books." It was dedicated to Queen 
Mary, who, in return, presented him (1694) with the living 
of Epworth, also in Lincolnshire, — a market town of about 
two thousand peojDle, whose chief occupation was the cul- 
ture and manufacture of hem^D and flax. "Not a man 
among them could read a sermon without spelling a good 
]3art of it." 

Mr. Wesley (he had now dropped the "t" from his name) 
devoted himself, with great diligence, to the cultivation 
of the spiritual interests of his parish, and the prosecu- 
tion of his literary labors. In March, 1695, he published 
his " Elegies on Queen Mary and on Archbishop Tillotson." 
His " Pious Communicant," with " Prayers and HjTnns," 
appeared in 1700. The same year, he issued " An Epistle 
to a Friend concerning Poetry," — a poem of 1,100 lines. 
" The History of the New Testament ; attempted in verse," 
appeared in 1701 ; followed, in 1704, by " The History of 
the Old Testament," also in verse. A Letter, written some 
years before in respect to Education among the Dissenters, 
got into print (1703, the year of John's birth), which pro- 
voked a bitter controversy, and drew from him (1704) " A 
Defence" of his Letter, and, in 1707, "A Reply to Mr. 
Palmer's Vindication." In 1705, he published a poem of 
694 lines, entitled, " Marlborough, or the Fate of Europe," 
which procured him a chaplainship in the army. A poem, 
with the title, "Eupolis's Hymn to the Creator," which 
has been highly eulogized, completes the list of his poetic 
works. 

The humble living of Wroote, five miles distant, was 
given him in 1725, and transferred (1734) at his own request 
to his son-in-law. Rev. John AYhitelamb. The last six or 
seven years of his life were mostly occupied with his latest 



SAMUEL WESLEY. 669 

and most elaborate publication, wliicli was x:)assing through 
the press at the time of his decease, Aioril 25, 1735. The 
book was published in October of the same year, and enti- 
tled, " Dissertationes et Conjecturse in Librum Jobi. " The 
Dissertations were fifty-three in number, and exhibited a 
vast amount of erudition. 

He was of a short stature, spare but athletic— his son 
John greatly resembling him. He was earnest, conscien- 
tious, indefatigable, and bold in his search for truth. He 
was ardently pious, a thorough royalist and high-church- 
man, a rigid disciplinarian in his house and in his church, 
a profound scholar, a ready wTiter, and, withal, impulsive 
and vivacious. All his life he was burdened with debt, 
and struggling with poverty. He lived to see his three 
sons thoroughly educated, and fully enlisted in his Mas- 
ter's service. He was the father of nineteen children, only 
ten of Avhom, three sons and seven daughters, survived 
their infancy. 

The following lines are taken from his " Epistle to a 
Friend," written in 1700 : 

"I envy not great Dryden's loftier strain 
Of arms and men, designed to entertain 
Princes and courts, so I but please the plain. 
Nor would I barter profit for delight, 
Nor would have writ like him : like him to write, 
If there's hereafter, and a last Great Day, 
What fire 's enough to purge his stains away ? 
How will he wish each lewd applauded line. 
Which makes vice pleasing, and damnation shine 
Had been as dull as honest Quarles', or mine ! 
With sixty years of lewdness rest content ; 
It mayn't be yet too late ! Oh ! yet repent: 
E'en thee our injured altar will receive ; 
While yet there's hope, fly to its arms and live ! 
So shall for thee their harps the angels string. 
And the returning prodigal shall sing ; 
New joys through all the heavenly host be shown, 
In numbers only sweeter than thy own." 



670 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 



1690-1739. 

Samuel Wesley, Juisr., was the eldest son of Rev. 
Samuel Wesley, and the first-born of his mother, Susan- 
nah Annesley. He was born, at London, February 10, 
1690, and was thirteen years older than his brother John. 
His childhood was passed at South Ormsby and ExDworth, 
Lincolnshire. From his infancy he was taught by one of 
the best of mothers to love and serve God. From her 
faithful instructions, he was sent (1704) to Westminster 
School, London, and, in 1707, was admitted a King's scholar 
of St. Peter's College, Westminster. He was much liked 
by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, who 
took him (1710) to his seat at Bromley, Kent, to read to 
him in the evenings. 

Having acquired the character of an excellent classical 
scholar, he was elected (1711) to a scholarship in Christ- 
church, Oxford. He took a high stand at the University, 
and, having received (1716) his degree of B.A., was ap- 
pointed an Usher of Westminster School, his brother, 
John, being then a pupil in the Charterhouse School, Lon- 
don, and a member of Samuel's household. The latter 
married a daughter of the Rev. John Berry, the Rector of 
Watton. He was ordained to the i^riesthood by the Rev. 
Dr. Francis Atterbury (who had succeeded his old friend. 
Dr. Sprat, in the See of Rochester), by whom, also, Mr. 
Wesley was very highly esteemed. It does not appear that 
he had, at any time, the charge of a parish, or a curacy ; 
his preaching was occasional only. He formed the friend- 
ship of Alexander Pope, Lord Oxford, and other men of 
distinction. He continued at Westminster until 1732, when 
he was appointed Head Master of the Free Grammar 
School, at Tiverton, Devonshire. 

At the beginning of 1736 (almost simultaneously with 
his father's book on Job), he published a Collection of his 



SAMUEL WESLEY, JUN. 671 

poetic writings, with the title, " Poems on Several Occa- 
sions," dedicated to his Mend and patron, the Earl of Ox- 
ford. He was greatly attached to the High Church party, 
and was suspected of Jacobinism, but on insufficient 
grounds. He disliked greatly the irregularities of his 
brothers, John and Charles, and earnestly remonstrated 
with them. He died very suddenly, at Tiverton, early in 
the morning of November 6, 1739, in the forty-ninth year 
of his age. The inscription on his grave-stone describes 
him as — " A man for his uncommon wit and learning, for 
the benevolence of his temper, and simplicity of manners, 
deservedly beloved and esteemed by all. An excellent 
Preacher ; but whose best sermon was, the constant ex- 
ample of an edifying life : so continually and zealously 
employed in acts of beneficence and charity, that he truly 
followed his blessed Master's example in going about doing 
good : of such scrupulous integrity, that he declined occa- 
sions of advancement in the world, through fear of being 
involved in dangerous comi^liances, and avoided the usual 
ways to preferment as studiously as many others seek 
them." 

One of his sweetest poems is a paraphrase on Isaiah xl. 
6-8, and was written on the occasion of a young lady's 
death. It was first published (1729) in a Collection of Mis- 
cellaneous Poems, edited by David Lewis : 

" The morning flowei-s display their sweets, 
And gay their silken leaves unfold ; 
As careless of the noon-day heats, 
And fearless of the evening cold. 

" Nipped by the wind's unkindly blast, 
Parched by the sun's du-ecter ray, 
The momentary glories waste. 
The short-lived beauties die away. 

" So blooms the human face divine, 

When youth its pride of beauty shows ; 
Fairer than spring the colors shine. 
And sweeter than the virgin rose. 



673 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

" Or worn by slowly rolling years, 
Or broke by sickness in a day, 
The fading glory disappears, 

The short-lived beauties die away, 

" Yet these, new rising from the tomb, 
With lustre brighter far shall shine, 
Revive with ever-during bloom. 
Safe from diseases and dechne. 

" Let sickness blast, and death devour, 
If heaven must recompense our pains I 
Perish the grass, and fade the flower, 
If fli-m the word of God remains." 



HENKY KIEKE WHITE. 

1785-1806. 

A short but brilliant career was all that was allotted tc 
Henry Kirke White. He was the second son of John and 
Mary [Neville] White, of K'ottingham, England, where he 
was born, March 21, 1785. His father was a bntcher, and 
the family were connected with the old Castle-gate Congre- 
gational Clinrch. He spent his fourth and fifth years in 
the small school of Dame Garrington, and has immortal- 
ized her in his Poem (1799) on " Childhood": 

' ' In yonder cot, along whose mouldering walls. 
In many a fold, the mantling woodbme falls. 
The village matron kept her little school. 
Gentle of heart, yet knowing well to rule : 
Staid was the dame, and modest was her mien ; 
Her garb was coarse, yet whole, and nicely clean ; 
Her neatly bordered cap, as lily fair. 
Beneath her chin was pinned with decent care ; 
And pendent ruffles, of the whitest lawn. 
Of ancient make, her elbows did adorn. 
Faint with old age, and dim were grown her eyes, 
A pair of spectacles their want supi^lies ; 
These does she guard secure m leathern case. 
From thoughtless wights, in some unweeted place." 



HENRY KIRKE WHITE. 673 

At six, lie was sent to the best school in Nottingham, 
tanght by the Rev. John Blanchard, where he spent five 
years in grammar-school studies, inclusive of French. At 
eleven, he wrote in one day a separate comj)osition for each 
of his twelve or fourteen classmates, for which they ob- 
tained particular commendation. Three years (1796-1799) 
were spent in the school of Mr. Shipley, where his prog- 
ress was rapid, and his talents were fully appreciated. 
Hitherto, he had assisted his father, as errand-boy and 
otherwise ; but his mother greatly desired to give him a 
thorough education, — and, for this purpose, opened a Ladies' 
Day and Boarding School, that met with considerable pa- 
tronage, and afforded her means to aid her son in his liter- 
ary aspirations. 

At fourteen, he was placed in a stocking loom, where he 
continued, chafing under the drudgery, for a twelvemonth. 
The next year, by the persistence of his mother, he ob- 
tained a situation in the Law-office of Messrs, Coldham 
and Enfield, of his native town. He now devoted himself 
with greediness, to the study of the law, and other literary 
pursuits. He obtained some knowledge of chemistry, 
astronomy, drawing, music, and electricity ; also of the 
Latin and Greek, of the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, 
languages. He also developed a mechanical turn of mind. 
He became a member of a Literary Society ; lectured, at 
fifteen, for two hours and three-quarters, extempore, on 
"Genius"; and was elected one of the Professors of the 
Society. He wrote for several magazines, and won several 
prizes. 

At a very early age, he had begun to write in verse ; and, 
at the instance of several literary friends, he published, in 
1803, a volume of his poetical productions, entitled,—" Clif- 
ton Grove ; a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems." Hith- 
erto, as his associates were nearly all Deists, he had inclined 
to that form of infidelity. But the conversion of one of 
them, Robert Almond, and several conversations with him, 
were blessed to his own conversion. He now determined, 
if possible, to enter the ministry ; and, with that intent, to 
43 



674 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

obtain a University education. His friend, Almond, had 
gone to Cambridge, and interested the Rev. Charles Sim- 
eon, Henry Martyn, and others, in his case. Arrangements 
were made to meet the expense of a University course. He 
obtained a release from the law-office, and, in October, 1804, 
went to Winteringham, on the Humber, Lincolnshire, to 
study with the Rev. Mr. Grainger. 

He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, as a sizar, 
early in October, 1805. At the next examination, he was 
adjudged the first man of the year ; also, at the great ex- 
amination of the following year. He had a fair prospect 
of obtaining every university honor, and of graduating as 
senior-wrangler. But the frail tenement gave way. The 
seeds of consumption had been sown, by reason of his con- 
stant and intense application to study night and day, long 
before he left home. At Cambridge, he suffered himself to 
abate not a whit in the ardor of his literary pursuit, but, to 
the very last, gave himself, unremittingly, to the acquisi- 
tion of knoAvledge. At length, the tension came to an end, 
his life- strings broke, and he died, in college, on Sunday, 
October 19, 1806, in the twenty-second year of his age. 

He was regarded as one of the most extraordinary and 
promising young men of the age. Robert Southey, after- 
wards Poet Laureate, interested himself greatly in his ris- 
ing fortunes, and, after his decease, published (1807) his 
" Remains," — poems, correspondence, and essays, — with an 
admirable biographical memoir. The Rev. Dr. Collyer, in 
his Selection of Hymns (1812), included ten of White's 
hymns, five of which had not before appeared. Lord By- 
ron, less than three years younger, was at Trinity College, 
Cambridge, while White was at St. John's, and until the 
year after his decease. In his caustic reply to the Edin- 
burgh Reviewers, entitled, " English Bards and Scotch Re- 
viewers," published, March, 1809, he makes mention of 
Henry Kirke White, in the following paragraph : 

"Unhappy White! while life was in its spring, 
And thy young muse just waved her joyous wing, 



HENRY KIRKE WHITE. 675 

The spoiler came ; and all tliy promise fair 
Has sought the grave to sleep for ever there. 
Oh ! what a noble heart was here undone, 
When Science' self destroyed her fav'rite son ! 
Yes ! she too much indulged thy fond pursuit, 
She sowed the seeds, but death has reaped the fruit. 
'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow. 
And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low. 
So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain. 
No more through rolling clouds to soar again. 
Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart. 
And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart. 
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel 
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel ; 
While the same plumage that had warmed his nest, 
Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast." 

A portion of his poems was left incomplete. Among 
these is the hymn, 

" Much in sorrow, oft in woe," etc., 

of which only the first ten lines were his. They were 
" written on the back of one of the mathematical papers " 
of White, and the fragment came into the hands of the 
Rev. Dr. Collyer, who published it in his Selection. The 
remaining fourteen lines, as now sung, were written by 
Fanny Fuller Maitland, and the hymn, thus completed, 
was included (1827) in her " Hymns for Private Devotion, 
Selected and Original." 

" The Christian : A Divine Poem," was the last and most 
elaborate efi'ort of his muse. He had "the sentence of 
death in " himself, when he wrote the last two stanzas : 

" Thus far have I pursued my solemn theme 

With self -re warding toil, thus far have sung 
Of godlike deeds, far loftier than beseem 

The lyre which I m early days have strung ; 

And now my spirits faint, aiid I have hung 
The shell, that solaced me in saddest hour, 

On the dark cypress ! and the strings which rung 
With Jesus' praise, their harpings now are o'er. 
Or, when the breeze comes by, moan, and are heard no more. 



676 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

"And must the harp of Judah sleep again ? 

Shall I no more reanimate the lay ? 
O thou, who visitest the sons of men, — 

Thou, who dost listen when the humhle pray ! 

One little space prolong my mom*nful day, — 
One little lapse suspend thy last decree ! 

I am a youthful traveller in the way, 
And this slight boon would consecrate to thee. 
Ere I with Death shake hands, and smile that I am free. 



HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. 

1762-1827. 

The liymn beginning 

"Whilst thee I seek, protecting Power! " 

has long been a great favorite \\i.th Christians of every 
name. It is found in almost all the Collections, and, more 
than all her other publications, has kept the name of the 
author in remembrance. In her day, she was quite a noted 
character. 

Helen Maria Williams was a native of London, where 
she was born in 1762. Her father, Charles Williams, of 
Aberconway, Caernarvon, Wales, held a high station in the 
War Office. Her mother was Miss Hay, of Naughton, of 
Scotch ancestry. In her early years, the family removed 
to Berwick-on-Tweed, where she obtained her education, 
and wTote (1779) her first poem, — " Edwin and Elfrida, a 
Legendary Tale." The next year, she came to London, and, 
under the patronage of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Kippis, a 
Unitarian divine, published (1782) her book. She was en- 
couraged to publish, the next year (1783), an " Ode on the 
Peace." This was followed by "Peru, a Poem "(1784); 
and these three publications were included in a " Collection 
of Miscellaneous Poems" (1786), in two volumes. Two 



HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. 677 

years later (1788), slie published a "Poem on the Slave 
Trade," in "easy, harmonious verse." 

Her works having furnished her a considerable profit, 
she went abroad in 1788, the era of the French Revolution, 
and was so fascinated with the life in Paris, that, early in 
1790, she ex]_3atriated herself, and took up her abode in the 
turbulent French metropolis, having just published her 
novel, " Julia," in two volumes. In the autumn, she issued 
her "Letters written in France in the Summer of 1790." 
" A Farewell, for Two Years, to England : a Poem," ap- 
peared in 1791 ; " Letters from France," in 1792 ; and 
" Letters, containing a Sketch of the Politics of France," 3 
vols., in 179.5. In this xniblication, she narra,tes her experience, 
while imprisoned in the Temple, from which she was liber- 
ated on the fall (1794) of Robespierre. A fourth volume, 
on the same topics, followed in 1796. The same year was 
issued her Translation of " Paul and Virginia," from the 
French of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, interspersed with 
some of her own sonnets. She, also, edited (1796) a Se- 
lection of " Poems, Moral, Elegant, and Pathetic. " 

She had now become wholly identified with the " Revo- 
lution," and alienated from her British home. In the in- 
terest of the " Grand Republic," she published, in two vol- 
umes (1798), "A Tour in Switzerland," and (1800) her 
"Sketches of the State of Manners and Opinions in the 
French Republic," for which she was severely handled by 
the British Critic. Tliis was followed by her Translation 
(1803), in three volumes, of " The Political and Confidential 
Correspondence of Louis XVI., with Observations on each 
Letter." For several years she contributed to the New An- 
nual Register the Articles on "France." She translated, 
also, " The Personal Travels of M. de Humboldt," four vol- 
umes of which she jpublished in 1814, and the remainder in 
1821. 

Her later Works were : " A Narrative of the Events " " in 
France from the landing of Napoleon Buonaparte, March 
1, 1815, till the Restoration of Louis XVIII." (1815) ; " The 
Leper of the City of Aoste," a translation from the French 



678 THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

(1817); and (1819) '' Letters on tlie Events which have 
passed in France since the Restoration in 1815." This last 
book contained her account of " The Persecutions of the 
Protestants in the South of France." In 1823, she pub- 
lished " Poems on Various Occasions," — a Collection of her 
previous Poems. 

She died, at Paris, December 14, 1827, "pre-eminent 
among the ardent female advocates of the French Revolu- 
tion"; "an ex- Jacobin, and one who toot as active a part 
in the business of the French Revolution as a woman could 
take"; — "the friend and admirer of Marat, and of various 
other equally enlightened assertors of the liberties of man- 
kind at that period." Her widowed mother resided with 
her in Paris, and the two were conspicuous members of the 
Protestant congregation over which the Rev. Messrs. Ra- 
baut, Monod, Marron, and Coquerel (Athanase) presided. 
The latter was her nephew and adopted son. She " filled 
a mother's vacant place " for him and his brother Charles, 
and brought them up. 

Coquerel, in the Preface to his " Christianisme Experi- 
mental," speaks of her as " one of the most remarkable fe- 
male writers of modern times, who justly bears the title of 
' English Historian of the French Revolution,' whose works 
have been translated into all modern languages ; and " who 
" remained to the last the friend of Clarkson and Wilber- 
force, of Southey, Wordsworth, and Rogers, of Mrs. Bar- 
bauld and Mrs. Opie." He further states, — "The constant 
example of domestic piety set at home, led me, when yet 
very young, to the determination of waiving the wide and 
brilliant prospect of various advancement which our fam- 
ily connexions opened to us during the Imperial Govern- 
ment, and of entering the Church." 

Her " Sonnet to Hope," greatly admired by Wordsworth, 
is subjoined : 

" Oh! ever skilled to wear the form we love, 
To bid the shapes of fear and grief depart, 
Come, gentle Hope ! with one gay smile remove 
The lasting sadness of an achmg heart. 



WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 679 

Thy voice, benign enchantress ! let me hear ; 

Say, that for me some pleasures yet shall bloom, 
That Fancy's radiance, Friendship's precious tear, 

Shall soften, or shall chase, misfortune's gloom. 
But, come not glowing in the dazzling ray, 

Which once with dear illusions charmed my eye. 
Oh I strew no more, sweet flatterer ! on my way 

The flowei-s I fondly thought too bright to die; 
Visions less fair will soothe my pensive breast. 
That asks not happiness, but longs for rest." 



WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 

1717-1791. 

The "Great Awakening" of tlie eigliteentli century ex- 
tended into Wales, at an early date, and was greatly pro- 
moted by the apostolic labors of the Rev. William Will- 
iams. He was bom (1717) at Cefnycoed, near Llandovery, 
Caermarthenshire. He was educated for the medical pro- 
fession. The stirring preaching of the zealous Howell Har- 
ris, in Talgarth church-yard, was blessed to his conversion. 
He devoted himself to the Church, and, after a due course 
of preparation, having been ordained (1740) a deacon, was 
presented to two small churches, in Breconshire, about 
twelve miles from Llandovery. Following the example of 
Harris, Whitefield, and the Wesleys, he abounded in pul- 
pit service, and extended his labors all over the country. 
Nearly a score of times, he was summoned before his dioc- 
esan and tried for these irregularities. For the same rea- 
son he was denied ordination to the priesthood. 

He now withdi-ew from the Church of England, and en- 
tered the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connection, as an 
itinerant preacher, associating himself with the eminent 
Daniel Rowlands, one of the most successful preachers of 
the day. In 1739, he married Miss Mary Francis, in whom 



680 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

he found an admirable companion and adviser. Taking 
the Principality as his field of labor, he went everywhere 
preaching the Word to his countrymen, and winning thou- 
sands to " the truth as it is in Jesus." During a ministry 
of forty-five years, he seldom travelled less than forty miles 
a week, or 2,000 miles a year. He resided, when at home, 
at Pantycelyn, in the parish of Llanfair-ar-y-bryn, near 
Llandovery. 

At one of the meetings of the Association with which he 
was connected, a trial was made of the poetic gifts of the 
several preachers present ; and such was the manifest supe- 
riority of Williams, that he was urged to cultivate the gift, 
and prei3are an evangelical psalmody for the Connection. 
He prepared a book of Welsh Hymns, which was published 
as the "Alleluia.-' It was printed (1745-1747) in six parts, 
at Bristol. Another book, called " The Sea of Glass," fol- 
lowed in 1752 ; still another, entitled, " Visible Farewell, 
Welcome to Invisible Things"; and a fourth, called, "Al- 
leluia again." These books, gathered subsequently into 
one volume, were speedily adopted, and are still used, by 
the churches in the Principality of Wales. 

Shortly after his first " Alleluia," he published, in verse, 
"A View of the Kingdom of Christ"; also, a Translation 
of Erskine on "Tlie Assurance of Faith"; also (1781), a 
sort of Pilgrim's Progress, called " Theomemphus," and an 
excellent book by the name of " Pantheologia. " He wi'ote 
not less than forty elegies, one of them for Whitefield 
(1771), of considerable length. 

His prose writings were not so numerous. Besides other 
and smaller works, he published (1768) " Three Men from 
Sodom and Egypt "; and, later, " The Crocodile of the River 
of Egypt." Though not as familiar with the English as 
with the old British tongue, he composed many hymns in 
English, fifty-one of which were published, at Bristol 
(1759), with the title, — " Hosannah to the Son of David ; 
or Hymns of Praise to God for our Glorious Redemption 
by Christ." Some of them were translations of his Welsh 
hymns. In 1772, he published his " Gloria in Excelsis : or 



WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 681 

Hymns of Praise to God and the Lamb." It contained sev- 
enty-one Hymns, the last of which was divided into seven 
parts. These two volumes were reproduced in one (1859), 
by Mr. Daniel Sedgwick, of London. The latter of the two 
is said to have been composed at the request of Lady Hunt- 
ingdon. 

He died, after a lingering and painful illness, at his home, 
January 11, 1791, aged seventy-four years. The Gentle- 
mari's Magazine speaks of him as " a clergyman of distin- 
guished talents and character." It says : "In early life, a 
pious but amiable enthusiasm induced him to adopt the 
itinerant, but apostolic, mode of Methodism ; and uniting 
a talent for poetry to an insinuating and captivating elo- 
quence, he contributed greatly to its prevalence and sup- 
port." " Many of his hymns have the property of the ode, 
true poetic fire, striking imagery, and glowing expressions, 
united with the plaintive muse of the country. Their ef- 
fect on the people is astonishing ; and the veneration in 
which they are held is little short of devotion." " His im- 
agination gave variety and interest to his orations ; his pi- 
ety was warm, yet candid and charitable ; his manners sim- 
ple, yet affectionate and obliging ; and his moral conduct 
without blemish or imputation." 

The hymn beginning 

" Guide me, O thou great Jehovah! " 

a great favorite, was printed in a leaflet form in 1773, and 
is a translation, by himself, of one of his Welsh hymns. 
Three only of its four stanzas are now used. The following 
stanzas from the 22d hymn of his " Gloria " are quite char- 
acteristic : 

" My God, my Portion, and my Love, 
My AH on earth, my AU above, 
My AU when in the tomb ! 
The treasures of this world below 
Are but a vain delusive show, — 
Thy bosom is my home. 



682 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

" Or friends, or wealth, relations near, 
And every thing the world calls dear, 

Are vanity and night ; 
Thyself, who flllest every space, 
Wilt thoroughly supply their place,— 

Thyself, my whole delight." 



CATHERINE WINKWOETH. 

1829-1878. 

Miss Winkwoeth was the daughter of Henry Wink- 
worth, of AHerley, near Manchester, England. She was 
born, September 13, 1829, at London, and died in the year 
1878. She is known, principally, by her vahiable contribu- 
tions to hymnology. Her familiarity with the German 
language, and its wealth of spiritual songs, is apparent in 
her several publications. 

The first publication of Miss Winkworth was her 
" Lyra Germanica — Hymns for the Sundays and Chief 
Festivals of the Christian Year. Translated from the Ger- 
man." The Preface is dated, "Alderley Edge, July 16th, 
1855." It contained translations of 103 hjTiins selected 
from the Chevalier Bunsen's " Gesang und Gebetbuch," of 
1833. They were " translated," she says, " not so much as 
specimens of German hymn-writing, as in the hope, that 
these utterances of Christian piety, which have comforted 
and strengthened the hearts of many true Christians in 
their native country, may speak to the hearts of some 
among us, to help and cheer those who must strive and 
suffer, and to make us feel afresh what a deep and true 
communion of saints exists among all the children of God 
in different churches and lands." 

The success of her first effort emboldened her to prepare 
and issue (1858) " Lyra Germanica : Second Series : The 
Christian Life." The 123 hymns in this series were "se- 



CATHEEINE WJ.NKWORTH. 683 

lected for their warmtli of feeling and depth of Christian 
experience, rather than as specimens of a particular master 
or school." An edition of the " Lyra," containing some of 
the fine old German Chorales to which the hymns are sung 
in Germany, by vast congregations, was published (1862) 
with the title, "The Chorale Book for England." 

Miss Winkworth, the next year (1863), published an Eng- 
lish translation of the "Life of Amelia Wilhelmina Sieve- 
king," the Foundress of the Female Society for the Care 
of the Sick and Poor in Hamburg, Germany. Her " Chris- 
tian Singers of Germany," the Preface to which is dated, 
"Clifton, April, 1869," contains a fund of desirable infor- 
mation respecting the principal hymn-writers of Germany, 
from " the early dawn of German Sacred Poetry and Song," 
to the middle of the present century. She published later, — 
" Palm Leaves : Sacred Poems Selected and Translated from 
the German of Karl Gerok." 

The following stanzas are from a hymn of twelve stan- 
zas, " for the twentieth Sunday after Trinity," in the First 
Series of the "Lyra Germanica": 

*' Oh ! would I had a thousand tongues, 
To sound thy j)raise o'er land and sea ! 
Oh ! rich and sweet should be my songs, 
Of all my God has done for me ; 

With thankfulness my heart must often swell, 

But mortal lips thy praises faintly tell. 

" Oh! that my voice could far resound 
Up to yon stars that o'er me shine ! 
Would that my blood for joy might bound 
Through ev^ery vein, while life is mine ! 
Woidd that each pulse were gratitude, each breath 
A song to him who keeps me safe from death ! " 



684 THE POETS OP THE CHUECH. 

ALFRED ALEXANDER WOODHULL. 

1810-1836. 

Alfred Alexat^der Woodhull, M.D., was the younger 
son of the Rev. George Spafford Woodhull, and was born, 
March 25, 1810, at Cranbury, N. J. His mother was the 
eldest daughter of Col. John Neilson, of New Bruns- 
wick, N. J., an elder of the Presbyterian Church, and a 
citizen of great worth, and highly respected. His father 
(1773-1834) was the eldest son of the Rev. John Wood- 
hull, D.D. (1744-1824), for more than half a century, a 
useful, devoted, and honored minister of the Presbyterian 
Church, and pastor of the church of Freehold, N. J. Rich- 
ard Woodhull, his lirst American ancestor, came (1648) 
from England, and settled on Long Island, N. Y. Dr. 
John Woodhull married Miss Sarah Spafford, of Philadel- 
phia (a step-daughter of the Rev. Gilbert Tennent), a lady 
of great worth and piety. 

At the time of Alfred's birth, his father had, for twelve 
years, been the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Cran- 
bury, N. J. ; but in 1820 (July 5) he became the pastor of 
the church of Princeton, N. J., where he continued twelve 
years, when he Avas transferred to the church of Middle- 
town Point, N. J., where he died, December 25, 1834. 

Alfred was prepared for college under the tuition of the 
Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., then a young man. Entering 
the Sophomore Class of the College of New Jersey, at 
Princeton, he graduated in 1828, and began the study of 
medicine with Prof. Samuel L. Howell, M.D., also of Prince- 
ton. Having attended, for two years, the regular course of 
lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, he received the 
degree of M.D., and was appointed Attending [Resident] 
Physician of the Philadelphia Aims-House Hospital, for 
one year. At the expiration of the year, he commenced 
the regular practice of his profession at Marietta, Lancaster 
Co., Pa. Soon after (February 26, 1833), he married Miss 



ALFRED ALEXANDER WOODHULL. 685 

Anna Maria, the eldest daughter of Dr. Dirch Salomons, of 
St. Eustasia, West Indies, and of Susan Smith, daughter of 
the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, D.D., one of the Presi- 
dents of the College of New Jersey. 

He removed, in November, 1835, to Princeton, and en- 
tered upon the practice of his profession there, in partner- 
ship with his elder brother. Dr. John N. Woodhull. He 
had connected himself, the previous year, with the Presby- 
terian Church of Donegal, Pa., and, both there and in 
Princeton, was known as a sincere, devout, and humble 
Christian. In the exercise of his profession, he contracted 
an autumnal fever, which tenninated fatally, October 5, 
1836. Though he had but just completed the first half of 
his twenty-seventh year, he had already obtained the confi- 
dence and esteem of his fellow-citizens in an eminent de- 
gree, and was most deeply and sincerely lamented. A most 
glowing eulogy of his character, as a Christian, a scholar, 
and a practitioner, was published in the Princeton Whiff, 
shortly after his death, from the pen of Prof. Albert B. 
Dod, D.D., to whom he had greatly endeared himself. 

He was addicted to versification, and wrote occasional 
poems, generally religious, several of which were contrib- 
uted to the Neio York Observer. His " Thanksgiving 
Hymn," 

" God of the passing year! to thee," etc., 

was a youthful production, and was contributed (1828) to 
the General Assembly's Collection of " Psalms and Hymns." 
During Ms last illness, in the near approach of death, he 
dictated the following beautiful stanzas : 

" There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God." 

" Traveller! dost thou hear the tidings 
Borne unto thy weary ear, 
Soft as angels' gentlest wliispers 
Breathing from the upper sphere, 

Sweetly telling, 
Thy redemption now is near ? 



THE POETS OF THE CHUECH. 

' In the desert's gloomy terrors, 

'Mid the tempest's booming roar, 
Hark ! the still small voice of mercy- 
Breaking from yon peaceful shore, 

Sweetly telling, 
All thy toil will soon be o'er. 

' Mourner ! when the tear of sorrow 

Wells from up thy stricken breast, 
Raise thy streaming eyes to mansions 
Where the weary are at rest, 

Sweetly telling. 
Here thou'lt be a welcome guest. 

' Mortal ! when death's viewless arrow 
Quivers in thy fluttering heart, 

Lift thy lapsing thoughts to Jesus, 
Who disarms the fatal dart. 

Sweetly telling, 
I to thee my peace impart." 



CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH. 

1807 . 

Bishop Wordsworth is of a literary family, and was 
highly favored in Ms early surroundings. His father, 
whose name he bears, was Master of Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, England (1820-1841), and author of an " Ecclesias- 
tical Biography," and "Christian Institutes." His mother 
was Priscilla, a daughter of Charles Lloyd, Esq., an emi- 
nent banker of Birmingham. William Wordsworth, the 
Poet Laureate, was his father's elder brother. His grand- 
father, John Wordsworth, was learned in the law, of which 
he was a successful practitioner. His elder brother, Charles, 
is the Bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane. 

Christopher Wordsworth was born, October 30, 1807, at 
Booking, Braintree, Essex, of which his father, at the time, 



CHEISTOPHEE WORDSWOETH. 687 

was Dean and Rector. He was educated for the ministry ; 
prepared for college at Westminster School ; entered (1826) 
Trinity College, Cambridge (of which his father was the 
Master, and Vice-Chancellor of the University) ; received 
(1827) the Chancellor's Gold Medal for the best English 
Poem, — Subject, "The Druids"; in 1828, took the Porson 
prize, for the best translation of a passage from Shakespeare 
into Greek verse, and the Sir Wm. Browne Medal for the 
best Latin Ode,— Subject, "Hannibal"; — also his Medal for 
the best Greek and Latin Epigrams ; in 1830, took one of 
the Chancellor's Gold Medals for the two best proficients 
in classical learning among the commencing Bachelors of 
Arts ; and the same year, took his degree of A.B., and was 
chosen a Fellow of his College, having completed a bril- 
liant University career. 

The greater part of the years 1832 and 1833, he spent in 
Greece, of which visit he published a Journal, by the 
name of "Athens and Attica," — "a gem of classical criti- 
cism and research." In July, 1833, he took his degree of 
A.M. ; December 22, 1833, was ordained a Deacon, by the 
Bishop of Lincoln ; and June 7, 1835, a Priest, by the 
Bishop of Carlisle. He was elected, February 3, 1836, Pub- 
lic Orator of the University of Cambridge ; and, in April, 
Head Master of Harrow School, occupying the position un- 
til November, 1844. " By Royal Mandate," he received the 
degree of D.D., in 1838, from the University of Cambridge. 
The same year he married Susanna Hatley, a daughter of 
George Frere, Esq., of Twyford House, Berkshire. 

His " Inscriptiones Pompeianae " was published in 1837 ; 
Ms " Greece : Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical," in 
1839 ; his " Sermons Preached at Harrow School," in 1841 ; 
his " Theophilus Anglicanus," in 1843 ; and his " Discourses 
on Public Education," in 1844. He was preferred (1844), 
by Sir Robert Peel, to a Canonry in Westminster Abbey. 
He was Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge, 1847-1848, and 
1848-1849, and his two Courses of Lectures were published, 
" On the Canon of the Scriptures," and on " The Apoca- 
lypse." He also published his " Diary in France" (1845) ; 



688 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

"Letters on the Church of Rome" (1847); "Babylon" 
(1850) ; " Memoirs of Wm. Wordsworth" (1851) ; " St. Hip- 
polytus and the Church of Rome " (1853) ; and his edition 
of "The New Testament in the Original Greek," with 
"Copious English Notes," 4 Parts, in 1856-1860. Seven 
volumes of " Sennons Preached in Westminster Abbey " 
were issued intermediately (1850-1859). These were fol- 
lowed by " Five Lectures delivered in Westminster Abbey," 
" on the Inspiration of the Bible," and " Five " more on 
"the Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments," in 
1861. 

His favorite hymns mostly appeared in his " Holy Year ; 
or, [117] Hymns for Sundays and Holy-Days and for other 
Occasions " (1862). His " Journal of a Tour in Italy " ap- 
peared in 1863 ; and " The Holy Bible, with Notes and In- 
troductions," in Parts, at various dates, after 1864. His 
" Church of Ireland " was published, 4 Sermons in 1866, 
and 8 Sermons in 1869 ; his " Union with Rome," in 1867, 
and his " Sermons on the Maccabees and the Church," in 
1871. Besides these, his principal publications, he has is- 
sued, at various periods of his active life, numerous Occa- 
sional Sermons and Essays, and edited several literary 
works. 

In 1850, he was jDref erred to the Vicarage of Stamf ord-in- 
the-Vale, Berkshire ; and, February 24, 1869, he was conse- 
crated Bishop of Lincoln. Several of his hymns have ac- 
quired considerable popularity, especially his hymn on 
" The Holy Day of Rest," beginning with 

" O day of rest and gladness." 

The following stanzas are the first half of a hymn in the 
Supplement (1863) to " The Holy Year": 

" The day is gently sinking to a close, 
Fainter and yet more faint the sunlight glows ; 
O Brightness of thy Father's glory, thou 
Eternal Light of light! be with us now; 
Where thou art present darkness cannot be ; 
Midnight is glorious noon, O Lord ! with thee. 



NIZOLAUS LUDWIG ZINZENDORF. 

" Our changeful lives are ebbing to an end, 
Onward to darkness and to death we tend : 
O Conqueror of the grave ! be thou our Guide, 
Be thou our Light in death's dai-k eventide ; 
Then in our mortal hour will be no gloom, 
No sting in death, no terror in the tomb. " 



NIKOLAUS LUDWIG ZINZENDORF. 

1700-1760. 

Hymnology owes mucli to Count Zinzendorf. He was 
the Founder and most efficient Patron of the Society of 
United Brethren, commonly known as Moravians, Pos- 
sessed of a remarkable poetic gift, he became, in the matter 
of sacred lyrics, to the " Brethren," what Isaac Watts had 
already become to the Non-Conformists of England, and 
what Charles Wesley became to the Methodists. 

Zinzendorf was of high-born parentage, the Count, his 
father, having been " Premier-Minister " of the Elector of 
Saxony. He was born. May 26, 1700, at Dresden, Saxony. 
The learned and godly Philipp Jakob Spener, D.D., Court 
Chaplain, then in his sixty-sixth year, and the Electoral 
Princesses of Saxony and the Palatinate, were his bap- 
tismal sponsors. His father died six weeks after the 
child's birth, and in due time his widowed mother was 
again married. Nikolaus was then entrusted to the care 
of her venerable mother, the widow of Baron von Gersdorf, 
a lady of earnest piety and literary accomplishments — her- 
self a writer of hymns, arid a warm admirer of Spener, who 
died in 1705. Under her training, the child became another 
Samuel, and, at four years of age, had manifested a remark- 
able knowledge of Christian doctrine and love for the Gos- 
pel. From his very childhood, he appeared to have known 
both the Scriptures, and the God of the Gospel — Jesus 
Christ, to whom, in his sixth year, he was accustomed to 
44 



690 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

write, as a cliild to a parent. His greatest delight was to 
gather his little play-fellows about him, and to preach and 
pray with them. His pocket-money he gave to the poor. 

From 1710 to 1716, he was the pupil of the renowned pi- 
etist, August Hermann Franke, at the Royal School in 
Halle. Here he made great progress both in learning and 
in piety — occupying many of his leisure hours in the com- 
position of hymns, for which he had a remarkable gift. 
He founded among his school -fellows a religious society, 
called " The Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed," — bound 
to extend the kingdom of Christ, especially among the 
heathen. In 1716, his uncle and guardian. General Zinzen- 
dorf, sent him to the orthodox University of Wittenberg, 
to study law. His own preference was divinity, the knowl- 
edge of which he found time to cultivate. Here, too, he 
wrote many sacred lyrics, and sought every means to pro- 
mote the practice of piety. 

In the spring of 1719, having completed the course of 
study, he left the University, and spent two or three years, 
with a private tutor, in visiting the princiiDal cities of Hol- 
land, France, and Switzerland. The " Ecce Homo," in the 
picture gallery of Diisseldorf, with its inscrii^tion— " All 
this have I done for thee ; what doest thou for me ? "— 
deeply impressed him : " From this time," he says, " I had 
but one passion, — and that was He, only He." At Ober- 
berg, he became enamored, during a season of illness, with 
his fair cousin, Theodora, daughter of the Countess of Cas- 
tell ; but finding that his friend, Heinrich, Count of Reuss- 
Ebersdorf, was a suitor for her hand, he renounced his o\\ n 
claims on her heart and hand, and subsequently said to 
Charles Wesley, — "From that moment I was freed from 
all self-seeking." 

Returning to Dresden in May, 1721, he was appointed 
Judicial Councillor. He edited a weekly paper— 7'7^e Ger- 
man Socrates — in the interest of religion, and conducted 
religious meetings in his own house. In May, 1722, he 
bought a large estate, named Berthelsdorf, in Upper Lusa- 
tia, Saxony ; and, September 7, 1722, he married the Coun- 



NIKOLAUS LUDWIG ZINZENDORF. 691 

tess Erdmuthe Dorotliee, sister of Ms friend, Count Reuss, 
— a lady, in whom lie found a most congenial companion. 
He was, at the time, " a remarkably handsome man, tall, 
and exactly of w^hat is termed aristocratic bearing and 
manners ; a ready speaker, with a clear, ringing voice, and 
graceful and imposing action." 

Meeting about this time with Christian David, a Mora- 
vian refugee, and learning from him of the persecutions of 
the Moravians by the Austrian Government, he olfered 
them an asylum at Berthelsdorf. In the summer of 1722, 
David and a few companions built a house at the foot of 
the Hutberg, on his estate, and gave it the name of Herrn- 
hut, — "the protection of the Lord." The settlement grew 
by almost constant arrivals of refugees and others, and Zin- 
zendorf identified himself with it completely ; so that, in 
1732, he resigned his office at Dresden, and removed to 
Berthelsdorf, to superintend the affairs of the community. 
Such was the rapidity with which the society grew, that, 
as early as 1732, they began to send forth missionaries to 
the West Indies and Greenland. The same year, he was 
ordered by the Government to sell his estates and leave 
Saxony, on the charges of heresy and disloyalty. At Tu- 
bingen, whither he had retired, he obtained ecclesiastical 
orders, and became, December 19, 1734, an authorized min- 
ister of the Word. He then visited Denmark, Holland, 
Prussia, and England. At London, where he arrived, Jan- 
uary 20, 1737, he met with Charles Wesley, Whitefield, and 
other brethren of like mind, over whom he exerted a pow- 
erful influence. At Berlin, May 20, 1737, he was ordained 
a bishop of the United Brethren, having, in June, 1736, 
fixed his abode at Marienborn (about thirty-five miles from 
Frankfort-on-the-Main), where John Wesley visited him in 
July, 1738. 

In December, 1738, he sailed for the West Indies, on a 
visit to the Moravian mission in St. Thomas, and obtained 
the liberation of the imprisoned missionaries; returning, in 
the spring of 1739, by way of England. In the latter part 
of 1741, he visited the continent of America (again taking 



692 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

England on his way), and spent a year, preacliing at Pliila- 
delphia, Germantown, Bethlehem, and among the Pennsyl- 
vania Indians. He returned, February", 1743, to England, 
and, April, 1743, to Germany. On the revocation of the 
edict of banishment, October 11, 1747, he gladly went back 
to Herrnhut, and made it his head-quarters. He visited 
England once more in 1749, and remained more than a 
year. Keturning thither again in 1751, he remained nearly 
four years, residing at Chelsea, London. His only surviv- 
ing son. Christian Renatus, died. May 28, 1752 ; and, after 
his return (1755) to Germany, his wife, also, was taken 
from him, June 19, 1756. In June, 1757, he married Anna 
Nitschmann, one of the venerable " sisters " of Herrnhut. 
He died, after four days of illness, of a violent catarrhal 
fever, May 9, 1760, having almost completed his sixtieth 
year. 

Zinzendorf is to be classed among the most devoted and 
useful men of the past century. His high birth, his large 
fortune, his distinguished social position, his eminent tal- 
ents, and his great literary attainments, as well as his am- 
bition, were all made subservient to the one great desire 
and aim of his ardent soul, — the advancement of the king- 
dom of Christ on the earth. Herrnhut, with all its appli- 
ances and organizations for the spread of the Gospel, is the 
fruit of his benevolence and godly zeal. The "jMustard 
Seed" that he planted there in 1722 has become a great 
tree, and has spread its branches over the earth. 

His literary activity kept pace with his Christian energy. 
He wrote more than a hundred treatises, large and small, 
historical, apologetical, doctrinal, and practical, all de- 
signed to promote his great end. Among his prose works, 
the principal are : " Conversations on Various Religious 
Truths"; "Jeremiah, the Preacher of Righteousness"; 
" Reflexions ISTaturelles"; " The Present State of the King- 
dom of the Cross of Christ "; and " The History of the Days 
of the Son of Man." 

At a very early age, he accustomed himself to poetic com- 
position, in which he acquired a remarkable facility. He 



NIKOLAUS LUDWIG ZINZENDORF. 693 

wrote about 2,000 hymns, 540 of which are found in the 
German Hymn-Books of the "Brethren," and 205 in the 
"English Hymn-Book." In February, 1724, he began the 
revision of the Bohemian Hymn-Book ; and, in 1725, lie 
published " A Collection of Hymns for the Parish of Berth- 
elsdorf "; and "A Paraphrase, in Verse, of the Last Dis- 
course of Jesus before his Crucifixion. " Two years later 
(1727), he issued " A Selection of Prayers and Hymns, from 
Angelus Silesius"; and, in 1735, a Collection of German 
Poems. In 1739, he published a small Collection of his 
Hymns ; and, in 1741, a new Collection of Hymns com- 
posed by the " Brethren." While a resident of London, he 
printed, in 1753, a Collection of 2,169 German Hymns ; and, 
the year following (1754), the second part, containing 1,000 
hymns. In company with Gambold, he published, also in 

1754, " A Collection of Hymns of the Children of God, in 
all Ages, from the Beginning until Now, designed for the 
Use of the Congregations in Union with the Brethren's 
Church." This was the great "English Hymn-Book," a 
large part of w^hicli consists of translations from the Ger- 
man, many of them by Zinzendorf . This was followed, in 

1755, by an Aj^pendix of 300 hymns. A Collection of his 
own Gennan hymns was published (1845) by Albert Knapj). 

A large portion of his hymns, both in German and Eng- 
lish, have scarcely any poetic merit; " some are fantastic and 
irreverent ; some mere rhymed prose ; others again have a 
real sweetness, fervor, and song in them." Among them, 
says Kiibler, " notwithstanding negligences of form and ex- 
uberance of feeling, are some of the finest, grandest, love- 
liest, and most touching effusions of sacred poetry. " The 
following, in the original, is a great favorite in almost 
every pious German household ; it is entitled, " Following 

Christ": 

' ' Jesus ! day by day, 
Lead us on life's way : 
Nought of dangers will we reckon, 
Simply haste where thou dost beckon ; 
Lead us, by the hand. 
To oiu' fatherland. 



694 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

' ' Hard should seem our lot, 
Let us waver not ; 
Never murmur at our crosses, 
In dark days of grief and losses ; 
'T is throug-h trial here 
We must reach thy sphere. 

" When the heart must know 
Pain for others' woe, 
When beneath its own 't is sinking, 
Give us patience, hope unshrinking ; 
Fix our eyes, O Friend ' 
On our journey's end. 

" Thus our path shall be 

Daily traced by thee: 

Draw thou near when 't is rougher. 

Help us most when most we suiler; 

And, when all is o'er, 

Ope to us thy door." 



THEODORE ZWINGER. 
1533-1588. 

Peof. Theodoke Z winger, M.D., of Bale, Switzerland, 
the eminent physician, scholar, and poet, was born, of poor 
parents, August 18, 1533, at Bale, where his younger days 
were spent. At a suitable age, he was sent to Lyons, 
France, to learn the printer's trade. His father was a fur- 
rier, and would have brought him up to his own business ; 
but his mother, who was a sister of John Opiron, a famous 
printer of that period, prevailed to change the design. 
While at Lyons, he occupied his leisure hours in study. 

At the end of three years, he went to Paris, where he 
prosecuted, under the tuition of the celebrated Professor, 
Pierre Ramus, the study of Philosophy. From Paris he 
proceeded to Padua, Italy, where he spent six years in the 



THEODORE ZWINGER, 695 

study of Medicine. Returning to Bale, his native place, 
lie obtained the Chair of Greek in the University, and, sub- 
sequently, of Moral and Political Philosophy. Afterwards, 
he was appointed Professor of Medicine, and, at the same 
time, was a most skillful and jDopular practitioner of the 
art. He died, of fever, after an illness of only two days, in 
March, 1588. His only son, Jacques, was born in 1569, and 
followed, with great success, his father's profession. 

Theodore Zwinger was one of the most learned men of 
the period. Moreri gives a list of sixteen of his Works, 
medical, philosophical, historical, and critical. His chief 
work, however, wsls his " Theatrum Vitse Humanse," pub- 
lished in 1565. It was begun by Conrad Lycosthene [Wolf- 
hart], the minister of the Protestant congregation at Bale, 
who had married Zwinger's widowed mother. He had 
sjient fifteen years on the work ; and, just before he died, 
March 25, 1561, he entreated his step-son to finish and pub- 
lish it. Zwinger lived to see a third edition of the work 
published. 

When Zwinger was on his death-bed, he is said to have 
composed the following paraphrase of the 122d Psalm : 

" O lux Candida, lux miLi 
Laeti conscia transitus ! 
Per Christi meritum patet 

Vitae porta beate. 
Me status revocat dies 
Augustum Domini ad domum : 
Jam sacra aetherii j)remam 

Lsetus limina templi. 
Jam visum Solymae edita 
Ccelo culmina, et aedium 
Coetus angelicos, sue et 

Augustum populo urbem : 
Urbem quam procul inflmis 
Terrse finibus exciti 
Petunt Christiadas, et Deum 

Laudant voce perenni : 
Jussam coelitus oppidis 
Urbem jus dare caeteris, 
Et sedem fore Davidis 



696 THE POETS OF THE CHURCH. 

Cuncta in ssecla beati. 
Mater nobilis urbium ! 
Semper te bona pax amat 
Et te semper amantibtis 

Cedunt omnia recte. 
Semper pax tua moenia 
Colit ; semper in atriis 
Tuis copia dextera 

Larga munera fundit. 
Dulcis Christiadum domus 
Cive adscribe novitium : 
Sola comitata Caritas — 

Spesque Fidesque valete." 

This beautiful and sublime farewell to earth loses little in 
the admirable and spirited translation of the Rev. James 
Merrick {q. v.), here given in full : 

" Wbat joy, while thus 1 view the day 
That warns ray thirsting soul away, — 

What transports fill my breast ! 
For, lo ! my great Redeemer's power 
Unfolds the everlasting door, 
And leads me to his rest. 

" The festive morn, my God! is come, 
That calls me to the hallowed dome 

Thy presence to adore ; 
My feet the summons shall attend, 
With willing steps thy courts ascend 

And tread th' ethereal floor. 

" E'en now, to my expecting eyes. 
The heaven-built towers of Salem rise: 

E'en now, with glad survey, 
I view her mansions that contain 
Th' angelic forms — an awful ti'ain, 
And shine with cloudless day. 

*' Hither, from earth's remotest end, 
Lo ! the redeemed of God ascend, 

Then' tribute hither bring : 
Here crowned with everlasting joy. 
In hymns of praise their tongues employ, 

And hail th' immortal King ; — 



THEODORE ZWINGER. 697 

*' Great Salem's King; -vvlio bids each state 
On lier decrees dependent wait ; 

In her, ere time begiin, 
High on eternal base upreared 
His hands the regal seat prepared 

For Jesse's favored Son. 

' ' Mother of cities ! o'er thy head 
See Peace, with healing wings outspread, 

Delighted fix her stay ; 
How blessed, who calls himself thy friend ! 
Success his labors shall attend, 

And safety guard his way. 

*' Thy walls, remote from hostile fear, 
Nor the loud voice of tumult hear. 

Nor war's wild wastes deplore ; 
There smiling Plenty takes her stand, 
And in thy courts, with lavish hand, 
Has poured forth all her store. 

" Let me, blessed Seat ! my name behold. 
Among thy citizens, enrolled, 

In thee for ever dwell ! 
Let Charity my steps attend. 
My sole companion and my friend, 

And Faith and Hope farewell I " 



INDEX 



The principal Hymns of the Authors noticed in this Work, as found 
in the Collections now in common use. 



A broken heart, my God, my King . ■J-^'^J^^ 

A broken heart, O Lord ! T. Raffles 

A charge to keep I have . . ■C.W.dey 

A debtor to mercy alone. A.M. loplady 

A few more years shall roll I~f- Bonar 

A glory gilds the «acred page._ W. Cowper 

A hymn for martyrs sweetly sing 

Venerable Bede^'^x., J. M. Neale 

A light streams downward Miss Hinsdale 

A little child, the Saviour came. . W. Robertson 

A living stream, as crystal clear . ^ Mason 

-^ A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark 

Af. Lictker. Tr., F. H. Hedge 

A mighty fortress is our God, a trusty 

° M. Luther, Tr., T. Carlyle 

A mind at perfect peace with God. ..H. Bonar 

A mother m^iy forgetful be Miss A . Steele 

A pilgrim and a Tr., Miss J. Borthwick 

A pili^rim through this lonely world.//, honar 

A present God is all our strength./". Doddridge 

A thousand oracles divine C. U eslcy 

Abba, Father ! hear thy child C. Wesley 

Abba, Father, while we sing E- Osier 

Abide in me and I in you . . ..£. H. Bicke^steth 
y Abide with me ; fast falls H. F. Lyle 

Above the stairy spheres „ ^ ^ ,, 

Ajnbrose, Tr., E. Casivall 

Absent from flesh ! O blissful thought,/. IVatts 

According to thy gracious ....J. Montgomery 

Again our earthly cares we leave ..J- i^---^ton 

Again our weekly labors end J. Stennett 

Again returns the day of holy rest. . W. Mason 

Again the holy morn Tr., E.Caswall 

Again the Lord of life. ..Mrs. A . L. Barbauld 
Again the Lord'.s own day.Tr., J. M.Ne^ile[.^) 

Again we lift our voice • • C. Wesley 

Ah, Head ! so bruised and wounded. C. IVesley 

Ah ! how shall fallen man /• W^'^-f 

Ah ! Jesus, let me hear thy voice A. heed 

Ah ! not like erring man is H. U. Oirderdonk 

Ah ! what avails my strife C. Wesley 

Ah 

Ah ! whilhet should 1 go -- ^ ■; i . , ., 

Ah ' wretched vile, ungrateful .Miss A. Steele And are there 

Alas ! and did my Saviour bleed /. Watts ^ -" -" "' "' 

Alas ! in wandering from the Lord. . . ./. Waits 
Alas ! what hourly dangers me. Miss A. Steele 

Alike in happiness or woe B. Beddome (o) 

All glorious God, what hymns. . .P. Doddridge 
All glory, laud and honor. . . .Tr., J. M. Neate 
All Glory, worship thanks, and. . .P. Gerhardt 
AH hail, Adored Trinity . .Tr., /. D.Chambers 

All hail, incarnate God ! Miss E. Scott 

All hail the gloiious morn .J. Peacock 

All hail the power of Jesus' name./i. Perronet 



All His servants, join to sing. ./. Conder 

All is dying, hearts are breaking 

C. Spitta, Tr., R. Massie 
All my heart this night rejoices 

P. Gerhardt, Tr,, Miss C. Winkworth 
All people that on earth do dwell W. Kethe 
All praise to him of Nazareth. . W. C. Bryant 
All praise to thee, eternal Lord ....M. Luther 
All praise to thee, my God. this night. . T. Ken 
All scenes alike engaging prove. ../Mme. Guyott 
All that I was, my sin, my guilt ... //. Bonar 

All things ate ready, come A. Midlane 

All ye Gentiles, praise the J. Montgomery 

All ye who owe to God \our. . Tr., 7, Wesley 
All ye who seek for sure relief Tr., I- . Casivall 
All ye who seek in hope and love. .A". Casivall 
•^Alleluia! Alleluia ! Alleluia !.Tr., J. M. Neale 
Alleluia ! Alleluia! hearts to...C. Wordsworth 
Alleluia ! best and sweetest. . ,Tr., J. Chandler 
Alleluia! song of sweetness. Tr., y. M. Neale 
Almighty Father, bless the . ..J. Montgomery 

-sAlmighty Father of mankind M. Bruce 

Almighty God. I call to Thee M. Luther 

Almighty God of love C.Wesley 

Almighty God I the pure and just. . E. Osier 
Almighty God ! Thy throne above.^. Chandler 
Almighty God ! Thy word is cau ..J. Caivood 

Almighty God, to-night J. M. Neale 

Almighty Lord, before Thy throne 

Miss A. Steele 

Almighty Maker, God ! /. Watts 

Almighty Maker of my fr.nme. . .Miss A. Steele 

Almighty Sovereign of the skies .V. Strong 

Almighty Spirit, now behold ..J. Montgomery 
Alone with Thee, with Thee alone.. 7'. //. Gill 

Along my earthly way... J. Edmeston 

Although the vine its fruit..//. U. Onderdonk 
Always with us— always with us. . £. //. Nevin 

Am 1 a soldier of the cc OSS I. Watts 

Amazing grace, how sweet the.. . "J. Seivton 
Amid the splendors of Thy state . , . .y.Jiififion 



\ :^^::i^:.o.Mrs:^-i^H^ p;;i^;y^;;^'i;j^Th;oTi^n;i":w:^7v^^ 

! thither sh'ould Igo'....,,..,,,.C W:../.^' , An exile for the fa.th ^r /T^-^/i 



* See Introductory Note. 



tries Miss J. Taylor 

And are we now brought near.../". Doddridge 

And are we wretches yet alive /. Watts 

And are we yet alive C. Wesley 

And be it so— that till this hour T. Gibbons 

And can I yet delay. C. Wesley 

And can mine eyes O. Heginbothom 

And can my heart aspire so Miss A. Steele 

And canst thou, sinner ! Mrs. A. B. Hyde 

And did the Holy and the ]\i%X..Miss A . Steele 
And dost Thou come, O blessed. . -J. Mason 
And dost Thou say,—" Ask what" .7. Newton 
And have we heard the joyful sound.. A". Osier 
And is the time Miss J. Borthwick 



700 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



And is there, Lord ! a rest R. Palmer 

And let this feeble body fail C Wesley 

And must I part with all I have. . .B. Beddome 

And must this body die /. Watts 

And now another week begins T. Kelly 

And now, my soul, another year ^9. Brown 

And now the solemn deed is done.. 5'. F. Smith 

And shall I sit alone .... S. Beddome 

And will the great, eternal God. .P. Doddridge 

And will the Judge descend P. Doddridge 

And will the Lord thus .Miss A . Steele 

And will the offended God again... 6". Ste}tnett 

And wilt Thou hear, O Lord 'Tx.^Neale 

Angel ! roll the rock away T. Scott 

Angels ! from the realms of J. Montgomery 

Angels ! lament, behold your.Tr., J. Chardler 

Angels rejoiced and sweetly sung W. Hum 

Another day has passed along. . . .J. Edmeston 

Another six days' work is done J. Stennett 

Apostles of the risen Christ, go forth. M Bonar 
Approach, my soul ! the mercy-seat. J. Newton 

Archangels ! fold your wings M. Bridges 

Arise, arise ! with joy survey T. Kelly 

Arise, great God, and let Thy J. Merrick 

Arise, my soul ! arise C. Wesley 

Arise my soul, fly up and run /. Watts 

Arise, my soul ! my joyful powers /. Waits 

Arise, my soul, on wings sublime. . . T. Gibbo-ns 
Arise, my soul, with rapture rise. .3'. P. Smith 
Arise, my tenderest thoughts !. . .P. Doddridge 
Arise, O God ! and let Thy grace . . y. Merrick 

Arise, O King of grace ! arise /. Watts 

Arise, ye saints ! arise T. Kelly 

Arm of the Lord ! awake, awake. W. Shrubsole 

Arm these thy soldiers C. Wordszvortk 

Around the Saviour's lofty throne.. .. T. Kelly 
Around the throne a circling ha.ni. J. M. Neale 

Around thy grave. Lord Jesus y. G.Deck 

Art thou a child of tears. T. Keble 

Art thou weary ? Art thou languid ? 

Stephen the Sabaite, Tr. y. M. Neale 
As by the light of opening day ... .y. Newton 
As every day Thy mercy spares. . W. Shrubsole 

As flows the rapid river S. P. Smith 

As Jesus died and rose again ... ... .M . Bruce 

As now the sun's declining. . .Tr., y. Chandler 
As oft with worn and weary feet. .y. Edmeston 

As pants the hart for cooling H. P. Lyte 

As shadows cast by cloud and sun. W.C.Bryant 
As the hart with eager looks. ..y. Montgomery 
As the sweet flower that. .y. W. Cunningham 
As when in silence vernal showers.. 7- Ripfion 
As when the weary traveler gains.. y. Ni-wton 
As with gladness men of old.... W. C. Dix 

Ascend thy throne. Almighty B. Beddome 

Ashamed of Jesus ! can it be y. Grigg 

Ask ye what great thing I know y. S. B. Monsell 

Asleep in Jesus ! ble»sed Mrs. M. Mackay 

Assembled at thy great W. B. Coliyer 

Astonished and distressed B. Beddome 

At anchor laid, remote from. . .A. 1\T. Toplady 

At the cross her station Tr., E. Caswall 

At the Lamb's high feast . . .Tr., R. Campbell 
At thy command, our dearest Lord.../. Watts 

Auspicious morning ! hail S. P. Smith 

Author of faith, eternal Word C. Wesley 

Author of faith, to Thee I cry C. Wesley 

Author of good, to Thee we t\xxn..y. M;rrick 

Awake, again the Gospel trump y. Keble 

Awake, all-conquering arm P. Doddridge 

Awake, and sing the song W. Hammond 

Awake, awake, O Zion B. Gough 

Awake, awake the sacred song. . Miss A . Steele 

Awake, glad soul ! awake y.S.B. Monsell 

Awake, my heart ! arise, my tongue../. Watts 

Awake, my soul ! and sing M. Bridges 

Awake, my soul ! and with the sun T. Ken 

Awake, my soul I in joyful lays .5'. Medley 

Awake, my soul ! lift. . . .Mrs. A. L. Barbauld 



Awake, my soul ! stretch evety../'. Doddridge 
Awake, my soul ! to joyful lays . . .5'. Medley 
Awake, my soul ! to meet the day .P.Doddridge 

Awake, my soul ! to sound His y. Barlow 

Awake, my tongue! thy tribute.. 5^. Needhant 

Awake, our drowsy souls Miss E. Scott 

Awake, our souls ! away our fears. . . ./. Watts 

Awake, ye saints ! and raise P. Doddridge 

Awake, ye saints ! awake T. Cotterill 

Awake, ye saints! to praiseyour King./. Watts 

Awaked by Sinai's awful sound S. Occotn 

Away from earth my spirit turns.. .R. Palmer 
Away from every mortal care. .... /. Waits 

Away, my unbelieving fear C. Wesley 

Awed by a mortal's frown E. Osier 

Be joyful in God, all ye lands, .y. Montgomery 

Be present at our table. Lord y. Cennick 

Be present. Holy Trinity.. . .Tr., y. M. Neale 

Be still, my heart y. Newton 

Be Thou exalted, O my God /. Waits 

Be thou faithful unto death B. Gough 

Be Thou, O God, exalted. . . . Tate and Brady 

Be tranquil, O my soul T. Hastings 

Be with me. Lord, where'er I go., .y. Cennick 

Before Jehovah's awful throne /. Watts 

Before the ending of the day 

Ambrose, Tr., y. M. Neale 

Before the heavens were spread /. Watts 

Before the Lord we bow p. S. Key 

Before thy mercy-seat W. H. Bathurst 

Begin, my soul ! th' exalted lay y. Ogilvie 

Begin, my tongue ! some heav'nly ..../. Watts 

Begone, unbelief, my Saviour y. Newton 

Behold ! a stranger's at the door. . y. Grigg 

Behold th' amazing sight P. Doddridge 

Behold ! the blind their sight receive /. Watts 
Behold ! the Christian warrior y. Montgomery 

Behold ! the day is come B. Beddome 

Behold the glories of the Lamb /. Watts 

Behold ! the grace appears /. Watts 

Behold ! the Lamb of God M. Bridges 

Behold ! the lofty sky /. Watts 

Behold the man ! how glorious T. Kelly 

Behold ! the messengers S. Victorinus 

Behold ! the morning sun /. Watts 

Behold ! the mountain of the Lord..yl/. Bruce 
Behold ! the Saviour of mankind ..S. Wesley 
Behold ! the shade of night is now receding 

Gregory, Tr., A'. Palmer 
Behold ! the sin-atoning Lamb . .y. hawcett 
Behold I the sure foundation stone.. . ./. Watts 
Behold ! the throne of grace . . . y. Newton 
Beliold ! the western evening. ?K. B. O. Peabody 
Behold ! Thy waiting servant, Lord. ./. Watts 
Behold ! we come, dear Lord . . . . y. .4. ustin 
Behold ! what condescending love.. 7. Peacock 

Behold! what pity touched /. Watts 

Behold ! what wondrous grace /. Watts 

Behold where, in a mortal hxm....W. Rnjield 

Behold ! where in the Friend W. Enfield 

Beneath Moriah's rocky side. A". M. McCheyne 
Beneath our feet and o'er our head. . .R. Heber 
Be.set with snares on every hand P. Doddridge 
Bethlehem, earth's noblest. ..Tr., E. Caswall 
Beyond, beyond that boundless .y. Conder 
Beyond the smiling and the weeping. H. Bonar 

Beyond the starry skies D. Turner 

Beyond where Kidroii's waters.. . S. F. Smith 
Birds have their quiet nests., .y S. B. Monsell 

Bless God, my soul Tate and Brady 

Bless, O Lord, the opening year. . . y. Newton 

Bless, O my soul ! the living Gnd /. Watts 

Blessed angels, while we silent lie. . T. Ken (a) 

Blessed are the dead who die B. Gough 

Blessed are the feet which bring y. Mason 

Blessed are the humble souls I. Watts 

Blessed are the men whose mercies. . ./. Watts 

Blessed are the pure in heart y. Keble 

Blessed are the sons of God y. Humphreys 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



701 



Blessed are the sons of peace /. Watfs 

Blessed are the souls that hear /. iVaiis 

Blessed are the undefiled in heart /. IVaits 

Blessed be the dear uniting love C. Wesley 

Blessed be the everlasting God I. Watts 

Blessed be the I'ather and his love /. Watts 

Blessed be the tie that binds ... J. Faiucett 
Blessed be Thou, the God. . .//. U. Onderdonk 
Blessed be Thy love, dear Lord. ... y. A ustin 

Blessed be Thy name J. Montgomery 

Blessed City, Heavenly Tr., J. M. Neale 

Blessed Comforter, come down./i. M. Toplady 
Blessed Comforter. . Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 

BlessedCreator of the light C. Coffin 

Blessed day of God ! most calm J. Mason 

Blessed feasts of blessed. .Tr., J. D. Chambers 

Blessed feast of love divine Sir E. Denny 

Blessed Fountain, full of grace T. Kelly 

Blessed hour ! when mortal man. . . .T. Raffles 

Blessed inhabitants of Zlon. y. Ne%vton 

Blessed is the man who shuns the . . I. Watts 
Blessed is the man, whose heart doth./. Watts 

Blessed is the man Mrs. A. L. Barbauld 

Blessed is the man whose spirit H. F. Lyte 

Blessed is the tie that binds y. Faiucett 

Blessed Jesus ir.. Miss C. Winkivorth 

Blessed Jesus ! when my O. Heginbothotn 

Blessed morning, whose young /. Waits 

Blessed Salem, long e,\pected. .Tr., W. Mercer 

Blessed Saviour ! thee 1 love G. Duffield 

Blessed Trinity ! from mortal. Tr., H. W. Baker 

Blessing and honor and glory and H. Bonar 

Blow ye the trumpet, blow C. Wesley 

Body of Jesus, O sweet food A. C. Coxe 

Bound upon the accursed tree H. H. Milman 
Boundless glorj , Lord ! be Thine. . . . T. Kelly 
Bowed with a sense of sin I ...A. M. Toplady 
Bread of heaven ! on thee I feed ■ ■ y. Conder 
Bread of the world in mercj' broken. .R. Heber 

Brethren called by one Tr., W.Mercer 

Brethren, let us join to ble>-s .J. Cennick 

Brethren while we sojourn here y. .Sivain 

Bride of the Lamb, awake Sir E. Denny 

Brief life is here our portion.. .T., y. M. Neale 
Bright and joyful is the morn.. 7. Montgomery 
Bright as the sun's meridian . W. Shrubsole 
Bright King of glory, dreadful God !. /. Watts 

Bright Source of everlasting love y. Boden 

Bright with all His crowns.. .. Sir E. Denny 
Brightest and best of the sons of the. ./?. Heber 
Brightness of the Father's glory. ..j^. Robinson 
Bro'ad is the road that leads to death . /. Watts 
Brother, thou art gone to rest.. .//. H. Milman 

Brother, though from Mrs. C. L. Bancroft 

Brought to the font with holy care E. Osier 

Buried in shadows of the night I. Watts 

Burst, ye emerald gates ! . ..R. Kempenfelt 

By cool Siloam's shady rill R. Heber 

By faith in Christ 1 walk with God.. 7. Neivton 
By precepts taught of ages past 

Ambrose, Tr., y. M. Neale 

By the cross of Jesus H. Bonar 

By thy birth and early years R. Grant 

Call Jehovah thy salvation. . . y. Montgomery 

Calm ire, my (Jod ! and keep me H. Bonar 

Calm on the bosom of thy ...Mrs. F. D. Hetnans 
Calm on the listening ear of night. ..£. H. Sears 

Calmer of the troubled heart C. Wesley 

Can aught beneath a power.. . . Miss A. Steele 
Can sinners hope for heaven. ... B. Beddome 
Captains of the saintly band.Tr., H. W. Baker 

Cast thy burden on the Lord. R. Hill 

Cease, ye mourners, cease to. . . W. B. Collyer 

Change is our portion here y. H. Evans 

Cheer up, desponding soul y. Byrom 

Child of sin and sorrow T. Hastings 

Children ! liear the melting story. . T. Hastings 
Children of light ! arise and shine. ^/rj?. Denny 
Children of men, rejoice. .Tr., y. D. Chambers 



Children of the heavenly King y. Cennick 

Chosen not for good in me. ..R.M. McCheyne 
Christ and his cross is all our theme.../. Watts 
Christ, by heavenly hosts adored.//. Harbaugh 

Christ for every man hath died E, Osier 

Christ had regained the sky. , Ambrose 

Christ in highest heaven. .'iantolius Victorinus 
Christ is born, tell forth His . .Tr., y. M. Neale 
Christ is gone up with joyful sound ../?. Heber 

Christ is gone up, yet ere He y. M. Neale 

Christ is made the sure foundation 

Saru7n Brev., Tr., y. M. Neale 
Christ is our Corner-Stone .. .Tr., y. Chandler 
Christ is risen ! Christ is risen \..A.S. Giirney 
Christ is risen ! the Lord is . . . H. H. Milman 
Christ lay awhile in death's strong hand 

M. Lut/ier,1v.,R.Massie 
Christ leads me through no darker. .R Baxter 

, Christ of all my hopes the ground./?. Wardlaw 
Christ of the Holy Angels M. Rabanus 

' Christ ! Redeemer of our race. . Tr., W. Mercer 

Christ ! the Father's mirrored M. Rabanus 

Christ the Lord is Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 

Christ, the Lord, is risen to-day C. Wesley 

I Christ, whose glory fills the skies C. Wesley 

j Christ will gather in His own 

j N.L.ZinzendorfXr.MissC. Winkworth 

j Christians, awake, salute the happy.. J'. Byrom 

I Christian, dost thou see them? 

j A ndrew 0/ Crete, Tr , y. M. Neale 

Christian ! seek not vet repose W. W. H02U 

Christians awake ! salute the . ..y. Byrom 
Christians, brethren, ere we part. .H. K. White 
Christ's everlasting. . . Santolius Victorinus 

Church of the ever-living God H. Bonar 

Circled by His enemies Tr., y. M. Neale 

Cling to the Mighty One H.Bennett 

Come, all harmonious tongues /. Watts 

Come, all ye chosen saints of God y. Hart 

Come, all ye saints of God y. Boden 

Come at the morning hour . . . .y. Montgomery 

Come, behold a great expedient /. Kelly 

Come, blessed Spirit, source of. . ../?. Beddome 

Come, dearest Lord, and bless y. Dobell 

Come, dearest Lord ! descend and /. U 'atts 

Come, divine F.manuel, come C. Wesley 

Come, ever-blessed Spirit !. . . . C Wordsworth 

Come, every pious heart ! S. Stennett 

Come, gracious Lord, descend and .. ./. Watts 
Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly. . . .S. Browne 
Come, guilty souls, and fly ... .y. Humphreys 
Come, happy souls ! approach your.../. Watts 
Come, heavenly Love! m'i'^ne. .Miss A . Steele 

Come hither, all ye weary souls /. Watts 

Come hither, ye faithful ..Tr., E. Caswall 
Come, Holy Ghost, all quickening. . .C Wesley 

Come, Holy Ghost, and Tr , E. Caswall 

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator ! come. . . .N. Tate 
Come, Holy Ghost, Eternal God./^. Doddridge 

Come, Holy Ghost, Eternal God N. Tate 

Come, Holy Ghost, in love . . .. R. Palmer 
Come, Holy Ghost, Lord God 

M. Luther, Tr., R. Massie 

Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts C. Wesley 

Come, Holy tihost,our souls inspire. Cr^fsry /. 
Come, Holy Ghost, who ever one 

Atnbrose, Tr., y. M. Neale 

Come, Holy Spirit, come, Let /. Hart 

Come, Holy Spirit, come, With.. .B. Beddome 

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly 5. Browne 

Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove /. Watts 

Come, humble sinner, in whose E. yones 

Come in, thou blessed of the Lord. . . . T. Kelly 

Come in, thou blessed _/. Montgomery 

Come, Jesus, Redeemer ! abide R. Palmer 

Come join, ye saints, with heart 5". Medley 

Come, let our souls adore .. .Miss A . Steele 

Come, let our voices join to raise /. Watts 

Come, let us all unite to praise M. Madan 



702 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



Come, let us anew, etc., Roll C, Wesley 

Come, let us anew, etc.. With C. IVesiey 

Come, let us join in songs of praise A. Pirie 

Come, let us join oui cheerful songs../. Watts 
Come, let us join our friends above..C IVesley 

Come, let us join our songs A. Pirie 

Come, let us lift our joyful eyes /. IVatis 

Come, let us lift our voices high /. IVat.s 

Come, let us praise the name of God. . C Coffin 

Come, let us search ourhearts E. Osier 

t'ome, let us sing of Jesus ...G. IV. Beihunj 
Come, let us sins the song .. .y. Montgomery 

Come, let us to the Lord y. Morrison 

Come, Lord, and tarry not H. Bonar 

Come, Lord, and warm each. . . .Miss A. Steeie 
Come, ma.;nify the Saviour's love E. Osier 
Come, my fond fluttering heart. il-//j-j y. Taylor 

Come, my Redeemer, come A. Reed 

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare y. Newton 

Come, O Creator Spirit. .... Ir., E. Caswall 
Come, O my soul, in sacred lays. . T. Blacklock 

Come, O thou traveler. . . ., C. Wesley 

Comeon, my partners in distress C. Wesley 

Come, poor sinners, come W. F. Lloyd 

Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measure 

Adam of St. Victor, Tt.,R. Camibell 
Come, sacred Spirit, from above./". Doddridge 
Come, saints, and adore... .il/zM i1/. De Fleury 

Come, Saviour. Jesus from Tr., y. Wesley 

Come, says Jesus' sacred. .y)/?-j. A . L. Barbauld 

Come, see the place where Jesus T. Kelly 

Come, shout aloud the O. Heginbothom 

Come, sound His praise abroad /. Watts 

Come, Spiiit, source of light B, Beddome 

Come, take His offers now C. Wesley 

Come, thou Almighty King C. Wesley 

Come, thou bright and C. K. von Rosenroth 

Come, thou desire of all Miss A. Steele 

Come, thou everlasting Spirit C. Wesley 

Come, thou Fount of every R.Robinson 

Come, thou Holy Spirit, come..Tr., E. Caswall 
Come, thou long-expected Jesus. ...C Wesley 
Come, thou soul-ir.in:5forming Spirit, .y. E^in.ns 
Come, thou who dost the soul.l'r., E. Caswall 

Come to Calvary's holy y. Montgomery 

Come, trembling sinner R. yones 

Come unto me, ye weary W.C. Dix 

Come up hither, come away E. H. Nevin 

Come, we that love the Lord /. Watts 

Come, weary souls, with sin Miss A. Steele 

Come, ye disconsolate T. Moore 

Come, ye faithful, raise the y. Hupton 

Come, ye lofty, come, ye lowly ...(4. T. Gurney 

Come, ye saints, and raise y. Hupton 

Come, ye saints, look here and T.Kelly 

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, .y. Hart 

Come, ye souls, by sin afflicted y. Swain 

Come, ye that know and fear G. Burder 

Come, ye that love the Lord I. Watts 

Come, ye that Iqve the Saviour's.M^j A . Steele 

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden y. Hart 

Come, ye wearv sinners, come C. Wesley 

Command thy 'blessing y. Montgomery 

Commit thou all thy griefs Tr., y. Wesley 

Compared with Christ A. M.Toplady 

Conquering kings their titles. .Tr., y. Chandler 

Creator of mankind Tr., y. Chandler (a) 

Creator of the rolling flood R.Heber 

Creator of the stars of night A mbrose 

Creator of the world, to thee. . C. Coffin 
Creator Spirit, by whose aid. ..Tr., y. D'-yden 

Crown him with many crowns M. Bridges 

Crown his head with endless W. Goode 

Crowns of glory, ever bright T. Kelly 

Dark was the night and cold y.Hawezs 

Daughter of Zion, from ;■■ 7- Montgomery 

Dawn purples all the east with light 

A mbrose, Tr. , y. M. Neale 
Day by day the manna fell 5". Conder 



Day divine, when sudden T. H. Gill 

Day of anger, that dread Thomas o/Celano 

Day of judgment, day of wonders. . y. Newton 

Day of wrath, O day of Thomas of Celano 

Day of wrath, that awful . . . Tho77ias of Celano 

Days and months quickly E. Caswall 

Dayspring of Eterniiy 

C K. von Rosenroth, Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 

Dear Father, to thy mercy Miss A. Steele 

Dear is the hallowed. .... y. W. Cunningham 

Dear Jesus, ever at my side E". W. Faber 

Dear Lord, amid the throng Sir E. Denny 

Dear Lord and Master mine T. H. Gilt 

Dear refuge of my weary hQ\x\. .Miss A. Steele 

Dear Saviour, I am thine P. Doddridge 

Dear Saviour, if these lambs. .Mrs. A.B. Hyde 

Dear Saviour, prostrate at thy 6". Stennett 

Dear Saviour, we are thine P. Doddridge 

Dear Saviour, when my Miss A . Steele 

Dear Shepherd of thy people y. Newton 

Dear ties of mutual succor W. C. Bryant 

Dearest of all the names above /. Watts 

Dearest of names, our Lord, our S. Medley 

Death cannot make our souls afraid.. ./. Watts 

Death may dissolve my body now /. Watts 

Death! 't is a melancholy day /. Watts 

Deathless spirit ! now arise A. M. Toplady 

Deep are the wounds which ivci.Miss A. Steele 

Deep in our hearts let us record /. Watts 

Deep in the dust before Thy throne../. Watts 
Deign this union to approve . W. B. Collyer 
Delay not, delay not, O sinner \. . .T. Hastings 

Depih of mercy ! — -can there be C. Wesley 

Descend, celestial Dove J. Fellows 

Descend from heaven, celestial Dovc.y. Hart 
Descend from heaven, immortal. ... /. Watts 

Did Christ o'er sinners weep B. Beddotn^ 

Dismiss us with Thy blessing. Lord ! J. Hart 

Disposer supreme Santolius Victor inus 

Do not I love Thee. O my . . ..P. Doddridge 
Do we not know that solemn word. . . ,/. Watts 

Does the Gospel word proclaim J. Newton 

Done IS the work that saves H. Bonar 

Down to the sacred wave S. F. Smith 

Draw, Holy Spirit, Thy seven-fold ... 7". Keble 

Draw, Holy Spirit, nearer C.J. P. Spitta 

Draw nigh and take the body.Tr.,/- M. Neale 

Draw nigh, draw nigh Tr.,y, M. Neale 

Dread Jehovah, God of nations .../'. Cotterill 
Dread Sovereign ! let my evening. . /. Watts 
Drooping souls, no longer mourn../'. Hastings 

Dying souls, fast bound in sin /. Hastings 

Each coming night, O Lord, we.. .J. D. Burns 

Early, my God I without delay /. Watts 

Earth below is teeming J.S. B. Monsell 

Earth has engrossed my love too long./. Watts 
Earth has many a noble city ..Tr., A. Caswall 
Earth has nothing sweet.. Tr., Miss F. E. Cox 
Earth to earth, and dust to dast.._/. //. Gurney 

Earth with her ten thousand T. R. Taylor 

Earth's transitory things decay /. Bowring 

Eight days amid this world of woe. ./. Anstice 
Emptied of earth I fain would.. .r4. M. Toplady 

Enthroned is Jesus now T.J.Judkin 

Enthroned on high. Almighty Lord! /. Haweis 
Kre earth's foundations, Tr.i1//.fi C. Winkworth 
Ere God had built the mountains.. W. Cowfier 

Ere I sleep, for every favor J. Cennick 

Ere the blue heavens were stretched. ./. Watts 
Ere the waning light decay 

Ambrose, Tr., R. Wrent 
Eternal depth of love divine. TV. L. Zinzendorf 
Eternal Father, Thou hast said. .../?. Palmer 

Eternal God, almighty Cause! S. Browne 

Eternal God, we look to Thee y. Merrick 

Eternal Power, whose high abode /. Watts 

Eternal Source of every good ! B. Beddome 

Eternal Source of every joy !. . . .,/*. Doddridge 
Eternal Spirit ! by whose. ...W. H. Bathurst 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



703 



Eternal Spirit, God of ---,. ^ navies 

Eternall Spirit Source ofhgh t ^-FHart 

Eternal Spint Source of truth. •■■■■■_•/• ,^;,,, 
Eternal Spirit ! we confess. Weslev 



First of martyrs, Thou . .Santohtcs ^^%Zne 
Fling out the banner, let it float. G-J^-ff^,"' 
Flow fast, my tears ! the cause is. . . H^. S/urUy 
Fling to the heedless winds. ■ ■ . ■ ■ ■■^^- ^"i^Z 
Fly ye sinners, to yon mountain, i?. Burnkam 

rTTTyVatr^°ror'd-;-:::-;-^^^^^ 

^°;:ii?hrsai-,?vh^fU^^^ 

?-rrch^sXd-::..:^:^"^l^"^4^^^^ 

For th^ mLcies of the day.^.__. •/;_^^-^X'2 



Every morning, mercies new.... ..-••• 

Every morning the r^ed Mrs. C. F. AU^'^^^^er^ 

Exalt the Lord our ood ■ • ■ >• , ^^ 

Extended on a cursed tree ..^.-P- ^f^;™ 

Faint not, Christian though the.y. ^ C 



. Mrs. 

Evani 
.J. Montgovicry 



.F. \V. Faber 
.B. Beddome 



Fair shines the morning star Turner 

Faith adds new charms to earthly../?, lurner 
Fa h, hope, -d charity . /. Mont^^^ery^ 

Faith'is the brightest evidence. . . . .^ . .A ^-«; 
Faith of our fathers! hving 

l:iii;f:i:K'i!^sr^hpcies^.5^«;^ 

Far as creation's bounds extend . . . /. f ^^^'^/^ 

Far as Thy name is known ■/• ^^^^'J 

Far downlhe ages now .. jTayfor 

Far from mortal cares retreating . . . ./. 1^°'^ 
Far from my heavenly home ..... - ^-.^-'/^^^ 

Father, at Thy footstool see . . 

Father, bless Thy word to all. . 

Father bv Thy love and power 

Father' for Thy promised blessing.^. 7>/j^/«« 

Fa her: hear th'e blood of Jesus , . . . C IVesley 

Father! how wide Thy glory shines. ./. Vl'^aJU 

Father ! 1 long. I faint, to see ... 

Father, I sing Thy wondrous grace_ ^^ ^^^^^^ 

ove C, IVesley 

Father'! in Thy mysterious ^r-^t^T. 



For thee, O dear, dear country. 
For those in bonds 



.C. Wesley 
...T. Kelly 
./. A nsl ' 



T. Hastings 

For Thrdekr" s^hu,'© Lord A'. Mant 

? F^orbi'd fh^m not, • the Saviour. . T Hasiin^ 

Forget thyself, Christ bade f Hf-stings 

Forlve us. Lord ! to Thee we cry. F. H«.sttngs 
Forth from the dark and stormy sky. R- Hebjr 
Forth in Thy name, O Lord! \.%,o. ..L. Wesley 

Fountain of grace, rich, lull . . /. ^.amesion 

^.°""" " of mt rev Mrs. A . Flowerdew 

Frequent the da^of God returns. . . .S. Bro^^ne 
VSllr fri.n\departs . J. Montgonury 

Friend of sinners, Lordofg lory f';,^,A 

From all that dwell below the sk;e^ . ./. »^a«. 
From Calvary a cry was. . . ./. » • yi^^^^^S";". 
From day to day before^ 



r eye.s,J.Mo?itgomery 
rubied ..I. Watts 



From deep distres.. _ 

From depths of woe 1--^- I h^e_^ ^_ ^^^^ .^ 

From distant corners /K. X. Alexander 

From Egypt lately come J nJ^is 

From every earthly V^.^^^^^.^.-fJ^etl 



Fa her, I stretch my hands to T nee. . C. W^_ ey 

Father in these reveal Thy love ^- /^rffy 

Father ! in Thy mysterious ^r-^'^Tsley- 

It^Z of'alSrZ iTnd In^d sea.- C.Words^ortk 
Fath:r of all, whose powerful voice. /. Wesley 

^:;!;:-[|}:;^in:bivrr'"i//:^^^^ 

Father of mercies ! bow Thine £ 

Father of mercies ! condescend . . ■ y--^,.^ I prom Thy dear, piercea siae 

Father of mercies, hear ■ ; ^^1^^^/, Gently, my Saviour ! et me down . -J-J^'" 

of mercies . in Ihy wo ^^ ^gadridge I Give glor 

ft ^■" C. Wesley 

C.Wesley 
T. H. Gill 



From foes thai ivi^l.iu ^..- ; i/^a^ 

From Greenland's icy mo""'^'"^ ;; -i^- 'A^J'u' 
From highest Heaven, the t-'ernal.// iK, ^^^^'^ 



rhyword. Miss A.Steele U.ra ^"V ^""-^^d .;" ^^ ^ "7. ./. .l/^^^^^^^r^- 
FatKer of mercies ! send ihy P. Dodpjge^ | give ^^l^J^^ ^^^^^l.tt,^;, A /■ Watts_ 



Fathe 



|?:Kson,'^'?^^'a^ost.-V....C^f^ 
Father, Thine elect 
Father, Thy n 



ho lovest 
be praised 

Tr Miss C. Winkworth 
Father, Thy will, not mi^le ..../• Montgomery _ 
■ ■ Thine each da. 
ful child 



Faiher; 't i^Thine eacWay to V-ld. .^£^j?;|; 



Fath 
Fear not 
Fierce was 



Give thanks to God, He reigns above../. WaJ^s 

Give thanks to God most high A JVatU 

Give to our God immortal praise /. Watts 

Give to the Lord, ye sons of f'^^^- p /•f^fj^ 
Give to the winds thy fears . . ...P- G^JT^^^rat 
Give us room that we may dwell . ■.■J-XiV 

was the wild billow ^^^ ^_ ^^^^^ j ^["^V'^l ^od on high, let .J. Mien 



Father, to Thy -"'"—''■- ' ' ^^ wSrdsworth 

Father who didst fashion me. Tr., H. W. BaHer 
Father', whose hand hath led me^o secui^ly . 
ose love and truth fulfil 



704 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



Glory to God on high, our /. Hart 

Glory to God the i- ather be .J. Mason 

Glory to God who when with.. 7". D. Chambers 

Glory to God with joyful adoration E. Osier 

Glory to th' Almighty Father.. W. H. Bathurst 

Glory to the Father give /. Montgomery 

Glory to 1 hee, my God ! this night T. Ken 

Glory to Thee who safe hast kept T. Ken 

Go, and the Saviour's grace proclaim.. T. Morell 

Go, labor on, spend and be spent H. Bonar 

Go, labor on, while it is day H. Bonar 

"Go, preach My gospel," saith the.../. IVatts 

Go to dark Gethsemane J. Montgomery 

Go to the grave in all thy. . J. Montgomery 
Go to thy rest, fair chWA. Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 
Go, tune thy voice to varied songs.. T. Hastings 

Go up, go up, my heart H. Bonar 

Go, worship at Immanuel's feet. ...../. Watts 

God calling yet? shall. .Tr., Miss J. Borthwick 
God eternal. Lord of all !. . .Tr., /. E. Millard 

God eternal, mighty King J. E. Millard 

God from on high hath heard C. Coffin 

God in His earthly temple lays /. Watts 

God, in the gospel of His Son ..B. Beddome 
God in the high and holy place..y. Montgomery 

God is a Spirit, just and wise /. Watts 

God is gone up on high C Wesley 

God is in His holy temple J. Montgomery 

God is love, His mercy brightens. . ./. Bowring 

God is my strong salvation /. Montgomery 

God is our refuge and defense. .J. Montgomery 

God is our refuge in distress M. Luther 

God is our strength, away our fear E. Osier 

God is the name my soul adores /. Watts 

God is the refuge of His saints /. Watts 

God, most mighty, sovereii^n H. Harbaugh 

God moves in a mysterious way . . W. Cowper 
God, my King, Thy might confessing../?. Mant 

(iod, my Supporter and my Hope /. Watts 

God of Israel, we adore Thee T. Kelly 

God of mercy, God of grace ! H. F. Lyte 

God of mercy, God of love ! J. Taylor 

God of mercy, hear our prayer. ... 7". Hastings 
God of my childhood and my youth. ./. Watts 
God of my life! look gently oown .. /. IFatts 
God of my life ! through all my . ./". Doddridge 
God of my life. Thy boundless.. yl/z^.? C. Elliott 
God of my life, to Thee belong. ..Miss E. Scott 

God of my life ! to Thee I call W. Cowper 

God of my mercy and my praise /. Watts 

God of ray salvation ! hear C. Wesley 

God of our fathers, by whose P. Doddridge 

God of our life ! Thy various.. (?. Heginbothom 

God of our life, to Thee we call W. Cowper 

God of our salvation ! hear us .. .T.Kelly 
God of that glorious gift of grace . . ./. Monsell 
God of the morning! at whose voice../. Watts 

God of the morning ray T. Hastings 

God of the nations! bow Thine.. T. Hastings 
God of the passing year! to..^. A. Woodhull 
God of the sunlight hours \ Mrs. M. G. Saffery 
God our hope and strength abiding... ./. Keble 

God reveals His presence G. Terstcegen 

God shall charge His angel /. Montgomery 

God the Father, from Thy .. .. H. W. Baker 

God the Lord a King remaineth .J. Keble 

God, who madcst earth and heaven R. Heber 
God s glory is a wondrous thing.. /^ W. Faber 
God's holy law transgressed . ...B. Beddome 
God is the Lord, the heavenly King../. Watts 
Good news from heaven the angels bring 

Luther^ Tr., ^. T. Russell 

Grace, like an uncorrupted seed /. Watts 

Grace I 'tis a charming sound P. Doddridge 

Gracious Lord, incline Thine. . . W. Hammond 

Gracious Redeemer, shake C. Wesley 

Gracious Saviour, gentle W. H. Havergal 

Gracious Saviour, gentle Miss J. E. Lesson 

Gracious Saviour, thus before H. Bateman 



Gracious Spirit, Dove divine J. Stacker 

Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost. . . C, Wordsworth 
Grant me within Thy courts.. J. Montgomery 

Granted is the Saviour's prayer C. Wesley 

Great Creator ! who this day. Mrs. /. A . Elliott 
Great Father of each perfect gift. P. Doddridge 

Great Father of mankind ! P. Doddridge 

Great Former of this various . . . .P. Doddridge 
Great God ! and wilt Thou . . Miss J. Taylor 
Great God ! attend while 2ion sings.../. Watts 
Great God ! how infinite art Thou . . ./. Watts 
Great God ! impress our trifling. . . G. Burder 

Great God I indulge my humble /. Watts 

Great God ! let all my tuneful. O. Heginbothom 
Great God ! let children to thy. .E. Bickersteth 

Great God ! now condescend J. Fellows 

Great God, o'er heaven and earth . . E. Osier 
Great God of Heaven and earth. .P. Doddridge 

Great God of nations, now A. A. Woodhull 

Great God of wonders, all Thy ways. 5. Davies 
Great God I ihe nationsof the earth. T. Gibbons 
Great God ! this sacred day . . . .Miss A. Steele 

Great God ! to Thee my Miss A . Steele 

Great God ! to what a glorious height. /. Watts 
Great God ! we sing thy mighty. P. Doddridge 
Great God ! what do I see 

A. B. Ringwaldt, Tr., W. B. Colly er 
Great God ! when I approach. W. H. Bathurst 

Great God ! where'er we pitch T. Rippon 

Great God ! who hid from mortal 

C. Coffin, Tr., H. W. Baker 

Great God ! whose awful mystery E. Osier 

Great God ! whose universal sway. . . ./. Watts 

Great God ! with wonder /. Watts 

Great High Priest ! we view Thee.. . . ./. Hart 
Great is our guilt, our fears . . . .Miss A, Steele 
Great is the Lord, his works of might. /. Watts 

Great is the Lord, our God /, Watts 

Great is the Lord ! what tongue can. ./. Watts 

Great King of glory and of grace /. Watts 

Great King of glory ! come B. Francis 

Great King of nations ! heai; our. J. H. Gurney 

Great King of saints ! enthroned .J. Conder 

Great Lord of all Thy churches. W. Kingsbury 
Great mover of all hearts, whose hand. C. Coffin 

Great Prophet of our God ! /. Watts 

Great Ruler of all nature's frame ! P. Doddridge 
Great Ruler of the earth and . ..Miss A . Steele 

Great Shepherd of Thine Israel /. Watts 

Great Shepherd of Thy people, hear. J. Newton 
Great Shepherd of Thy ransomed,..,/. Newton 
Great Source of being and of. . . P. Doddridge 
Great Source of life, our souls./". Doddridge (a) 

Great Spirit ! by whose mighty. T. Haweis 

Great Sun of righteousness ! arise. . . . /. Waits 
Great the joy when Christians meet. G. Burder 
Guideme, O Thou great Jehovah ! W.Williams 
Guide us. Thou, whose name.. W.Williams (a) 
Had I the tongues of Greeks and Jews. /. Watts 

Hail, everlasting Spring P. Doddridge 

Hail, happy day, thou day of holy. 5. Browne 
Hail, holy day, most blest . . . Miss C. Elliott 
Hail ! holy, holy, holy, Lord ! Let. E. Perronet 

Hail ! holy, holy, holy. Lord ! C. Wesley 

Hail, holy Spirit, bright, immortal. 5. Browne 
Hail ! mighty Jesus, how divine... . B. Wallin 
Hail ! morning, known among. . . .R. Wardlaw 
Hail ! source of pleasures, ever . T. Blacklock 
Hail ! that head with. .Bernard of Clairvaux 

Hail the day that sees him rise ! C. Wesley 

Hail the joyful day's return R. Catnpbell 

Hail, Thou bright and sacred. Mrs. J. A . Elliott 
Hail ! Thou God of grace and. T. W. Aveling 

Hail ! Thou long-expected Jesus C. Wesley 

Hail ! Thou once despised Jesus !../. Bakewell 
Hail to the brightness of Zion's. . . T. Hastings 
Hail to the Lord's Anointed !. ./. Montgomery 

Hail to the Prince of life and P. Doddridge 

Hail to the Sabbath day S. G. Buljinch 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



705 



Hail ! tranquil hour of closing day I. ..L. Bacon 
Hallelujah ! best and sweetest. Tr.,y. Cliatidler 
Hallelujah ! fairest morning 

Tr., Miss J. Borthmick 

Hallelujah ! Hallelujah I C. Wordszuorth 

Hallelujah ! He cometh with. E. H. Bickersteth 

Hallelujah ! joyful raise. _ C. N. Hall 

Hallelujah ! raise. Oh ! raise J. Conder 

Happy is he that fears the Lord /. Watts 

Happy soul ! thy days are ended C. Wesley 

Happy th e church, 1 hou sacred place. /. Watts 
Happy the heart where graces reign.. ./. Watts 
Happy the man, whose cautious feet . ./. Watts 

Happy the souls to Jesus joined C. Wesley 

Happy they that find a rest H. F. Lyte 

Hark ! a thrilling voice is sounding 

Ambrose, Tr., E. Casivall 

Hark ! a voice divides the sky C. ll-'eslcy 

Hark ! from the tombs a doleful sound. /. // 'atts 

Hark ! hark, my soul, Angelic E. W. Faber 

Hark ! hark, the notes of joy A. Reed 

Hark ! how all the welkin rings C. Wesley 

Hark ! how the choral song R. S. McAll 

Hark ! how the v/aichmen cry C. Wesley 

Hark ! my soul ! it is the Lord. . . W. Co7vper 
Hark! ten thousand harps and voices. T.Kelly 

Hark I the distant isles W. H. Batkurst 

Hark the glad sound ! the Saviour./". Doddridge 
Hark ! the herald angels sing .... C. Wesley 
Hark ! the nightly church .E. H. Bickersteth 
Hark ! the judgment trumpet. .A^. i". S. Benian 

Haik the loud triumphant strains T. Kelly 

Hark the notes of angi-ls singing T. Kelly 

Hark ! the song of jubilee. J. Montgomery 

Hark the sound of holy voices. C Wordsworth 
Hark ! the voice of Jesus calling.. .A. Midlane 
Hark ! the voice of love and mercy.../. Evans 
Hark ! 'tis the watchman's cry ..H. Bonar 
Hark to the solemn bell. . Mrs. J. L. Gray 
Hark I wliat mean those holy voices.y. Cawoud 

Hark, what mean ihose _/. Cawood 

Haste, traveler, haste, the night. IV. B. Collycr 
Hasten, Lord, to my release.. . J .'Montgomery 

Hasten, sinner ! to be wise T. Scott 

Hasten the time appointed. j1//j.ry. Borthivick 

Have mercy, Lord, on me Tate and Brady 

Have mercy on us, God most high./". /K. Faber 

He is coming, he is Mrs. C. F. Alexander 

He comes in blood-stained. .'1/>-j. C. L. Bancroft 

He dies — the friend of sinners dies /. Watts 

He has come ! the Christ of God H. Bonar 

He is here whom seers in old Tr.,/. M. Neale 
He is risen. He is risen . . Mrs, C. F. A lexander 
He knelt — the Saviour. . . Mrs. F. D. Hemans 
He lives! he lives ! and sits above . . /. Waits 

He lives— the everlasting God /. Watts 

He lives— the great Redeemer. . Miss A . Steele 
He reigns, the Lord, the Saviour reigns./. Watts 
He sendethsun. He sendeth. J/rj. A". F. Adams 
He spake, and gathering into. . 7. D. Chambers 
He that goeth forth with weeping. . /. Hastings 
He that hath made his refuge, God.. ./. Watts 
He who on earth as man was known../. Newton 

He who once in righteous Tr., E. Caswall 

Head of the Church, our risen Lord. ./. Conder 

Head of the Church triumphant C. Waley 

Head of the hosts in glory M. Bridges 

Heal us, Immanuel! hear our prayer li'. Cowfier 
Hear, gracious God, a sinner's cry.. 5. Medley 
Hear, giacious God, my humble. y)/7>j A. Steele 
Hear, gracious Sovereign, from. ..P. Doddridge 
Hear my prayer, O heavenly. . . Miss //. Parr \ 

Hear, O Sin ner ; mercy hails you A. Reed [ 

Hear what God, the Lord, hath W. Coiuper i 

Hear what the voice from heaven . . ./. Watts I 

Hearken, Lord ! to my. /. Montgomery 

Heart-broken, friendless, poor../. Montgomery , 

Hearts of stone ! relent, relent C. Wesley] 

Heavenly Father ! to whose eye /. Conder ' 



Heavenly Spirit ! may each heart../. Edineston 

Heirs of unending life B. Beddome 

Help us, O Lord, Thy yoke to wear /. Cotterill 

Heralds of creation I cry ./. Montgomery 

Here at Thy cross, incarnate God /. Watts 

Here I can firmly rest 

P. Gerhardt, Tr., Miss C. Winkworih 
Here, O my Lord, I see Thee sweet. H. Bonar 
Here at 1 by table. Lord ! we meet 5". Stennett 
Here in Thy name, eternal God!./. Montgomery 

Here, Lord! by faith I see Thee H. Bonar 

He's gone, see where His body lay /. Kelly 

He'.s gone, the Saviour's work on . . E. Denny 
Here the King hath spread his.^. A'. Tho7npson 
High in the heavens, eternal God !..../. Watts 

High in yonder realms of light /. Raffles 

High let us swell our tuneful , P. Doddridge 
His kingdom comes, ye saints, rejoice. .£. Osier 

Ho ! every one that thirsts ! C. Wesley 

Ho ! ye needy, come and welcome. . / Hart 

Holiest ! breathe an evening ./. Edmeston 

Holy and reverend is the name . ./. Needham 

Holy Bible ! book divine ./. Burton 

Holy, delightful day ! T. H. Gill 

Holy Father ! hear my cry . .. H. Bonar 

Holy Father ! 'I hou hast taught . . ./. M. Neale 
Holy Ghost ! dispel our. . . .Tr., A. M. Toplady 
Holy Ghost ! my soul inspire. ... R. Mant 
Holy Ghost that, promised, came..../?. Palmer 

Holy Ghost ! with light divine A. Reed 

Holy, holy, holy. Lord .. /. Conder 

Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God R. Heber 

Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God oi. .C.Wordsworth. 
Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God.. . /. Montgomery 
Holy, holy, holy ! Lord, God the . C. Wesley 
Holy, holy, holy, Lord! Self-exist'nt./. Ryland 

Holy Jesus, Saviour blest R. Mant 

Holy, Lord, the godly fail H.F. Lyte 

Holy offering, rich and rare. . ../. 5. B. Monsell 

Holy Saviour, we adore f. G. Deck 

Holy Spirit, come, we pray Tr., W. Mercer 

Holy Spirit, fount of blessing T.f.fudkin 

Holy Spirit, from on high W. H. Bathurst 

Holy Spirit, from on high Robert II. 

Holy Spirit, gently come W. Hammond 

Holy Spirit, in my heart R. Mant 

Holy Spirit, Lord of Light 

Robert II., Tr., E. Caswall 

Holy Spirit ! once "Xx.^Miss C. Winkworth 

Hope of our hearts ! O Lord I E. Denny 

Hosanna! be the children's song./. iT/cKi'^(!'/«^rj' 
Hosanna ! raise the pealing...//'. H. Havergal 
Hosanna to our conquering King ..../. Watts 

Hosanna to the living Lord I R. Heber 

Hosanna to the Prince of grace /. Watts 

Hosanna to the Prince of light /. Watts 

How are Thy servants blessed /. Addison 

How beauteous are their feet /. Watts 

How beauteous on the mountains. . .B. Gough 

How beauteous were the marks A. C. Coxe 

How beautiful the feet that bring./. Mason (a) 

How blest is he, how truly Miss A. Steele 

How blest the feet which bring. /. I\ftu^ 

How blest the man who^e cautious . . . I. Watts 

How blest the man whose / Merrick 

How blest the righteous. .Tl/rj. A. L. Barbauld 

How blest the sacred Mrs. A . L. Barbauld 

How blest were they who walked C. Coffin 

How bright these glorious spirits .... /. Watts 
How calm and beautiful the morn. T. Hastings 
How can I sink with such a prop . ./. Watts 
How can we adore, or worthily.. W. Hammond 

How charming is the place 5. Stennett 

How clearly are His torturing. Tr., E. Caswall 
How condescending and how kind ...I. ll'^atts 

How did my he.irt rejoice to hear /. Watts 

How far beyond our mortal Miss A. Steele 

How firm a foundation, ye saints. G. Keith (?) 
How full of anguish is the thought /. Watts 



706 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



How gentle God's cominands. . . .P. Doddridge 

How graciously the Lord W. H. Bathurst 

How great the wisdom, power B. Beddonte 

How happy are the souls above R. Elliot 

How happy every child of grace C. Wesley 

How happy is the child M. Bruce 

How happy is the man who hears.. ..M. Bruce 

How happy is the pilgrim's lot. .J. Wesley 

How heavy is the night . . . /. Watts 

How helpless guilty nature X\e.'~,..Miss A. Steele 

How honorable is the place /. Watts 

How honored, how dear J. Conder 

How large the promise, how divine. . . ./. U'atts 
Kow long, O Lord, shall I complain.../. Watts 
How long shall earth's alluring. .Miss A. Steele 
How long the time since Christ began. R. Heber 
How lovely are 1 hy dwellings fair. . .J. Milton 
How oft, alas ! this wretched. . Miss A. Steele 
How oft have sin and Satan strove.. ../. Watts 

How pleasant, how divinely fair /. Watts 

How pleasant 't is to see /. Watts 

How pleased and blessed was I /. Watts 

How precious is the book divine. . . /. Fa-wcett 
How rich are Thy provisions. Lord I ./. Watts 
How rich Thy bounty. King of.. P. Doddridge 
How rich Thy gifts, almighty King ! A. Kippis 

How sad our state by nature is ! /. Watts 

How shall a contrite spirit pray. J. Montgomery 

How shall I follow Him /. Cotider 

How shall the sons of men appear.. 6'. Stennett 

How shall the young secure their /. Watts 

-How short and hasty is our life /. Watts 

How should the sons of Adam's race../. Watts 
How sweet and awful is the place. . /. Watts 
How sweet, how heavenly is the sight. _/. Swain 
How sweet the hour of closing. W. H. Bathurst 
How sweet the melting lay. Mrs. P. H. Brown 
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds. J. Newton 

How sweet to bless the Lord W. Urwick 

How sweet to leave the world awhile. T. Kelly 
How sweetly flowed the gospel's. . J. Bowring 

How swift the torrent rolls P. Doddridge 

How tedious and tasteless the hours, y. Newton 

How tender is Thy hand T.Hastings 

How vain are all things here below . . ./. Watts 
How vain is all beneath the skies.. D. E. Ford 

How welcome was the call H. W. Baker 

How will my heart endure P. Doddridge 

How wondrous and great ...//. U. Onderdonk 
How wondrous great, how glorious. . . . /. IVatts 
Humble Lord ! my haughty spirit...//. F. Lyie 
Humble souls who seek salvation.. ._/. Fawcett 
I asked the Lord that I might grow. _/. Newton 

I bless the Christ of God H. Bonar 

I bow me to Thy will. . . .Tr., F. W. Faber (a) 

I build on this foundation Tr., R. Massie 

I cannot call affliction sweet . ._/. Montgomery 

I did Thee wrong, my God H. Bonar 

I feed by faith on Christ, my. . J. Montgomery 

I give immortal praise /. Watts 

I have a home above H. Bennett 

I hear a voice that comes from far T. Kelly 

I hear the words of love . . H. Bonar 

I heard the voice of Jesus say H. Bonar 

I hold the sacred book of God E. Osier 

I know no life divided Tr.,/?. Massie 

I know that my Redeemer lives, And. C. Wesley 

I know that my Redeemer lives 5. Medley 

I lay my sins on Jesus H. Bonar 

I left the God of truth and light.y. Montgomery 

I lift my soul to God /. Watts 

I'll prai>e my Maker with my breath../. Watts 

I'll speak the honors of my King /. Watts 

I long to behold Him arrayed C. Wesley 

I love my God, but with no love. Mme, Guyon 
I love the Lord, He heard my cries. ../. Watts 
I love the Lord, whose gracious.. . T. Hastings 

1 love the sacred book of God 7". Kelly 

I love the volumes of Thy word /. Watts 



love Thy Kingdom, Lord ! T. Dwigki 

love to see the Lord below /. Watts 

love to steal awhile away. Mrs. P. H. Brown 

'm but a stranger here T. R. Taylor 

'm not ashamed to own my Lord /. Watts 

once was a stranger to grace. R. M. McCheyne 

saw One hanging on a tree J. Newton 

say to all men, far. .Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 

see the crowd in Pilate's hall //. Bonar 

send the joys of earth away /. Watts 

sing th' almighty power of God /. Watts 

stand on Zion's mount . J. Swain 

thank Thee, uncreated Son _/. Scheffler 

thirst, but not as once I did W. Cowper 

thirst. Thou wounded N. L. Zinzendorf 

've found a joy in sorrovt . ..Mrs. J. Crewdson 
've found the pearl of greatest price. ._/. Mason 

waited patient for the Lord /. Watts 

want a heart to pray C. Wesley 

want a principle within C. Wesley 

was a wandering sheep H. Bonar 

will love Thee, all. . .Tr., Miss J. Borthwick 

will praise Thee every day W. Cowper 

will sing my Maker's praises 

R. Ge7-hard, Tr.. R. Massie 

worship Thee, sweet will F. W, Faber 

would be Thine, O take my heart.... .^. Reed 

would love Thee, God and Mme. Guyon 

would not live alway . . W. A. Muhlenberg 
f Christ is mine, then all is mine. .5. Beddome 

f God himself be for me P. Gerhard 

f God is mine, then present things. .j5. Beddome 

f human kindness meets return G. T. Noel 

i I must die, oh, let me die B. Beddome 

f Jesus be my friend. .Tr., Miss C. Witikworth 

f life in sorrow must be spent Mme. Guyon 

f on a quiet sea _. . A.M. Toplady 

f on our daily course our mind J. Keble 

f there be, that skills to reckon..../. M. Neale 

f Thou impart Thyself to me C. Igesley 

f through unruffled se.as A.M. Toplady 

n all my Lord's appointed ways J. Ryland 

n all my vast concerns with Thee. . . /. Watts 

n all things like Thy brethren .J. A nstice 

n deep distress lo God 1 cried E. Osier 

n duty and in suflfering too B. Beddome 

n evil long_I took delight /. Newton 

n expectation sweet J. Swain 

n His temple now behold Him J. Scheffler 

n loud exalted strains B.Francis 

n love, the Father's sinless child H. Bonar 

n memory of the Savioijr's love — J. Cotterill 

n our common celebration /. M. Neale 

n prayer together let us fall J. M. Neale 

n robes of judgment, lo ! he comes. ../. Watts 

n stature grows the Santolius Viciorinus 

n sweet exalted strains B. Francis 

n the Christian's home in glory.. 5. V. Harmer 

n the cross of Christ I glory J. Bowring 

n the hour of trial ./. Montgomery 

n the moining hear my voice../. Montgomery 
n the name of God, the Father../. W. Hewett 

n the silent midnight watches A. C. Coxe 

n the sun, and moon, and stars R. Heber 

n the waste howling wilderness ./. Keble 

n Thee I put my steadfast . . . Tate and Brady 
n Thine image Thou didst make ./. Scheffler 

n this calm, impressive hour T. Hastings 

n this world of sin and sorrow. Mrs. /. Madan 
n Thy glorious resurrection .. .€. Wordsworth 

n Thy great name, O Lord ! we /. Hoskins 

n Thy name, O Lord ! assembling. . . T. Kelly 

n time of fear, when trouble's T. Hastings 

n time of tribulation / Montgomery 

n true and patient hope C. Wesley 

n vain my fancy strives to paint /. Newton 

n vain my roving thoughts Miss A. Steele 

n vain the world's alluring Miss A. Steele 

n vain we seek for peace with God. . ./. Watts 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



707 



Incarnate God ! the soul that. /. Newion 

Indulgent Sovereign of the skies./". Doddridge 

Infinite excellence is Thine /. Fawcett 

Inquire, ye pilgrims ! for the way. P. Doddridge 
Inscribed upon the cross we see ...T. Kelly 
Inspirer and hearer of prayer \..A. M. Toplady 

Inspii er of the ancient seers ! C. Wesley 

Interval of grateful shade P. Doddridge 

Is there a mourner true ? J. Keble 

Is there ambition in my heart /. Watts 

Is this the kind return _. /. Watts 

Isles of the deep, rejoice ! rejoice \.. .E. Denny 
It came upon the midnight clear. .E. H. Sears 
It is my sweetest comfort, Lord. . . .E. Casivall 

It is not death to die G. W. Betkune 

It is Thy hand, my God! ./. G. Deck 

Jehovah hath spoken ! the nations . . E. Osier 
Jehovah reigns, He dwells in light. . ../. Watts 
Jehovah reigns. His throne is high..../. Watts 

Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! R. Heber 

Jerusalem, the glorious... ...Tr., J, M.Neale 

Jerusalem, the golden Tr., J. M. Neale 

Jesu, as though Thyself wert..Tr., .£. Caswall 

Jesu, behold the wise from far 7- ^ ustin 

Jesu, Creator of the world Tr., /". Caswall 

Jesu, meek and lowly H. Colli }is 

Jesu, redeemer of the world E. Caswall 

Jesu, the virgin's crown 

Ambrose (?), Tr., J. M. Neale 

ijesu, who broiightest redemption. .y. M. Neale 
Jesu, who from Thy father's throne. J. Anstice 
Jesus ! all-atoning Lamb C. Wesley 
Jesus, all hail, who for my sin F. W. Faber 
Jesus, and didst Thou leave t\vc.Misi A. Steele 
Jesus ! and shall it ever be J. Grigg 
Jesus, at whose supreme command. . C. Wesley 
Jesus, be near us when we. . . .Tr., E. Caswall 
esus, blessed mediator . . y. Cotder 
esus calls us o'er the. ..Mrs. C. F. Alexander 
esus, cast a look on me J. Berridge 
esus Christ, my Lord and Miss F. Taylor 
esus comes. His conflict over /. Kelly 

Jesus, delightful, charming name.. .5. Beddome 
Jesus demands the voice of joy . . W. Coode 
Jesus demands ihis heart of. . . .Miss A. Steele 

Jesus! engrave it on my heart S.Medlty 

Jesus, exalted far on high .. .T. Cotterill 

Jesus, lull of all compassion ! D. Turner 

Jesus, full of love divine B. Gough 

Jesus ! grant me this, I pray H. W. Baker 

Jesus ! guide onr way N. L. Zinzendorf 

Jesus ! hail ! enthroned in glory. ..J. Bakewell 
Jesus ! how much Thy namc.'l/rj. M. R. Peters 

Jesus ! how sweet Thy J. W. Alexander 

Jesus! I come to Thee N. S. S. Beman 

Jesus! Ilive to Thee H. Harbaugh 

Jesus! I love Thee evermore.../^. C. Benedict 
Jesus! I love Thy charming ...P.Doddridge 

Jesus ! I my cross have taken H. F. Lytc 

Jesus ! immortal King ! . A.C.H. Seymour 

Jesus, in Thy transporting Miss A . Steele 

Jesus invites His saints . . 1. Watts 

i is God ! the glorious bands../". W. Faber 
Jesus is gone above the skies. . . . I. Watts 
Jesus is the name we treasure. Tr , J. M. Neale 
Jesus ! Jesus ! come and save vs .//. Batetnan 
i! Jesus! visit me ....Tr, J?. P. Dunn 

Jesus ! Lamb of God ! for me R. Palmer 

esus ! let Thy pitying eye C. Wesley 

Jesus, Lord of Life eternal . .Tr., y. M. Neale 
Jesus, Lord, Thy servants see 

B. Schmolke, Tr., Miss F. E. Cox 
Jesus lives ! no longer now 

C. /'. Gellert, Tr., Miss F. E. Cox 

fesus. Lord ! we look to Thee C. Wesley 
esus, Lover of my soul ! C. Wesley 
esus. Master of the feast C.Wesley 
esus ! merciful and mild T. Hastings 
esus, mighty King in Zion y. Fellows 



, Jesus, my All, to heaven is gone. . y. Cennick 

I Jesus, my great high priest /. Watts 

j Jesus! my heart within me burns../?. Palmer 

I Jesus, my Lord, attend C. Wesley 

Jesus, m.y Lord ! how rich Thy../". Doddridge 
Jesus, my Lord, my chief Delight. .j5. Beddome 
Jesus, my Lord, ray God, my All \..li. Collins 
Jesus, my Saviour ! bind me fast. ..B. Beddome 

Jesus, my Saviour, let me be B. Beddome 

j Jesus, my sorrow lies too deep H. Bonar 

Jesus, my Strength, my Hope ! . . . . C Wesley 

Jesus, my truth, my way ! C. Wesley 

Jesus, name all names above.. Tr., y, M. Neale 

Jesus, name of priceless worth W. W. How 

Jesus ! name of wondrous love W. W. How 

Jesus, once for sinners slain y . Ha>t 

Jesus, our best beloved y. Montgomery 

Jesus, our Lord ! ascend Thy throne../. Watts 

Jesus, our hope, our Tr.. y. Chandler (a) 

Jesus, our Lord ! how rich Thy .P. Doddridge 

Jesus ! refuge of Thy people E. Osier 

Jesus, save my dying soul T. Hastings 

Jesus, seek Thy wandering sheep C. Wesley 

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun /. Watts 

Jesus, spotless Lamb of God y. G. Deck 

Jesus spreads His banner o'er us R. Park 

Jesus ! still lead on 

N. L. Zinzcndorf, Tr., Miss y. Borthwick 
Jesus, Sun of righteousness.C. K.Von Rosenroth 

Jesus, the Christ of God H. Bonar 

Jesus, the conqueror, reigns C. Wesley 

Jesu^, the name high over all C. Wesley 

Jesus ! the Shepherd of the sheep .. T. Kelly 
Jesus, the sinner's Friend! to thee..C. Wesley 
Jesus, the sinner's rest Thou art. /3. M. Toplady 
Jesus, the spring of joys divine.. J/zVj .<4. Steele 

Jesus! the very thought of Tr., E. Cas-wall 

Jesus ! the very thought is sweet 

Bernard de Clairvaux., Tr., y. M. Neale 

Jesus ! the word of mercy give C. Wesley 

Jesus ! these eyes have never seen../?. Palmer 
Jesus, Thou art my righteousness. ...C Wesley 
Jesus ! Thou art the dinner's .R. Burnhatn. 

Jesus, Thou everlasting King ! /. Watts 

Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts!../?. Palmer 

Jesus, Thou source divine Miss A. Steele 

Jesus, Thou source of calm repose. ..C Wesley 

Jesus ! Thy blessings are not few /. Watts 

Jesus ! Thy blood and Tr., y. Wesley 

Jesus ! Thy boundless love to me 

P. Gerhard. Tr., y. Wesley 

Jesus ! Thy church, with W. H. Batkurst 

Jesus, Thy mercies are untold 

Bernard de Clairvaux^ Tr., ?. M. Neale 

Jesus! Thy name I love y. C. Deck 

Jesus, Thy robe of N. L. Zinzendor/ 

Jesus, transporting sound C. Wesley 

Jesus ! we bow before Thy N. S. S. Beman 

Jesus ! we look to Thee . . C. Wesley 

Jesus ! we thus obey C. Wesley 

Jesus wept, those tears are over E. Denny 

Jesus! where'er Thy people meet..^. Cow/>er 

Jesus, while He dwelt below y. Hart 

Jesus, while our hearts are T. Hastings 

Jesus ! who died a world to save.. W. Ha7n7nond 

Jesus ! who knows full well y. Newton 

Jesus, who on His glorious throne.. y. Newton 

I esus, whom angel hosts adore H. Bonar 

Jesus! with all Thy saints above /. Watts 

Join all the glorious names /. Watti 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. . ./. Watts 

Joyful be the hours to-day T. Kelly 

I udge me, O Lord ! and prove /. Watts 

Just are Thy ways and true Thy worth. /. Watts 
Just as I am, without one plea../l//.r.f C. Elliott • 
Just as Thou art, without one trace. /?. 5. Cook 

Keep silence, all created things ! /. Watts 

Keep us. Lord, oh keep us ever 7". Kelly 

Kindred in Christ ! for His dear y. Newton 



708 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



King of kings ! and wilt. . .W. A. Muhlenberg 
Kingdoms and thrones to God belong../. Watts 
Know, my soul, thy full salvation...^. F. Lyte 

Lab'rers of Christ ! Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 

Laboring and heavy laden . . J. S. B. Movsell 

Laden with guilt and full of fears /. Watts 

Lamb of (Jod, Thou now ait seated. .J. G. Deck 
Lamb of God, whose bleeding love. . . C. Wesley 
Lands long benighted ! the. .. C. S. Robinson 
Lead, kindly Light, amid the..y. H. Newman 

Lead on, Almighty Lord T. Kelly 

Lead us, heavenly Father ! lead. ..y. Edmeston 

Let all on earth with song rejoice R. Mant 

Leaning on I'hee, my guide.. .Miss C. Elliott 

Let all the earth their voices raise /. Watts 

Let all the heathen writers join. ../. Watts 

Let all the just, to God wilh.. Tate and Brady 
Let children hear the mighty deeds. . ./. Walls 

Let everlasting glories crown /. Watts 

Let every creature join /. Watts 

Let every heart exulting. .Tr., J. D. Chambers 

Let evei-y mortal eni attend /. Watts 

Let every tongue Thy goodness speak../. Watts 

Let God. the Father, live /. Watts 

Let God, with awful pomp, arise E. Osier 

Let me be with Thee, where. . . .Miss C. Elliott 

Let me but hear my Saviour say /. Watts 

Let me go, the day is breaking. y. Montgoittery 
Let others boast how strong they be. ./. Watts 

Let party names no more B. Beidome 

Let plenteous grace descend on J. Newton 

Let saints on earth in concert sing C. Wesley 

Let saints on earth their anthems ...J. Evans 

Let sinners take their course /. Watts 

Let songs of praises fill the sky . . T. Cotterill 
Let the chuich new anthems. .Tr., y. M. Neale 
Let the land mourn through. .J. Montgomery 
Let the world their virtue boast.. C. Wesley 
Let them neglect Thy glory. Lord !.../. Watts 

Let us awake our joys W. K ingsbury 

Let us love, and sing, and wonder. . .J. i\ewton 

Let us sing with one Miss D. A . Thrufip 

Let us with a gladsome mind J. Milton 

Let worldly minds the world y. Nezuton 

Let Ziou and her sons rejoice /. Watts 

Let Zion's watchmen all awake. ./*. Doddridge 
Life is a span, a fleeting hour. . . .Miss A. Steele 
Life of the world, 1 hail Thee. Tr., R. Palmer 
Life is the time to serve the Lord. . . /. Watts 

Lift, my soul, thy voice Tr., W. Mercer 

Lift up to L od the voice of R. Wat dlaw 

Lift your eyes of faith, and see C. Wesley 

Lift up your heads, eternal. . . Tate and Brady 
Lift your heads, ye friends of Jesus . C. Wesley 
Lift up yoiir heads. ._■ -Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 

Light ot life, seraphic Fire ! C. Wesley 

Light of light ! Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 

Light of the anxious heart y. H. Newman 

Light of the lonely pilgrim's heart E. Denny 
Light of the soul, O Saviour blest E. Caswall 
Light of the world, shine on . . .E. Bickersieth 

Light of those whose dreary C. Wesley 

Light's glittering morn bedecks the sky 

Ambrose, Tr., y. M. Neale 
Like morning, when her early breeze. T. Moore 
Like Noah's weary dove. ..W. A. Muhlenberg 

Like sheep we went astray /. Watts 

Like the eagle, upward, onward H. Bonar 

Listen, sinner ! mercy hails you A. Reed 

Little traveler Zionward y. Edmeston 

Lo ! from the desert homes C. Co_ffin 

Lo ! God is here, let us adore 

G. Tersteegen, Tr., C. Wesley 

Lo ! God, our God, has come H. Bonar 

Lo ! He comes, let all adore Him T. Kelly 

Lo ! he comes, with clouds. . Cennick df Wesley 

Lo ! he cometh, countless y. Cennick 

Lo, I behold the scattering shades. . . /. Watts 
Lo ! now is our accepted day. .Tr., y. M. Neale 



Lo ! on a narrow neck of land C. Wesley 

Lo ! the mighty God appearing W. Goode 

Lo, the prisoner is released C. Wesley 

Lo ! unto us a child is burn . . . .y. Morrison (a) 

Lo ! what a glorious corner-stone /. Watts 

Lo ! what a glorious sight appears /. Watts 

Lo ! what an entertaining sight /. Watts 

Lo ! where the words of wisdom shine, j?. Osier 
Long as 1 live, I'll bless Thy name.. . ./. Watts 
Long have I sat beneath the sound.../. Watts 
Long plunged in sorrow, I resign.. A/ wf. Guyon 
Look down, O Lord ! and in our. . . T. Cotterill 

Look down, O Lord ! with P. Doddridge 

Look from Thy sphere of endless. /F. C. Bryant 

Look up, my soul ! with Miss A . Steele 

Look, ye saints ! the sight is glorious. . T, Kelly 
Lord, all I am is known to Thee. . /. Watts 

Lord ! as to Thy dear cross we. y. H. Giirney 

Lord ! at this closing hour E. T. Fitch 

Lord, at Thy feet we sinners lie 5. Browne 

Lord, at Thy table we behold J. Stennett 

Lo.d, bid Thy light arise W. H. Bathurst 

Lord ! dismiss us with i hy blessing.*^. Shirley 
Lord ! for ever at 1 hy side. . . y. Montgomery 
Lord, for the just Thou dost provide. J. Addison 

Lord God of my salvation //. F. Lyte 

Lord God, the Holy Ghost y. Montgomery 

Lord God, we worship I'hee 

y. Frank, Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 
Lord, have mercy, and remove..//. //. Milman 

Lord, have mercy, when we H. H. Milman 

Lord, how mysterious are Thy . .Miss A . Steele 

Lord ! how secure and blessed are /. Watts 

Lord ! how secure my conscience was../. Watts 
Lord, how shall sinners dare, . . .Miss A. Steele 
Lord, how the troublers of my peace.//. /'. Lyte 
Lord, 1 address Thy heavenly throne../. Watts 
Lord, I am come, Thy promise is,. . . .y. Newton 
Lord ! I am Thine, entirely Thine. . .S. Davies 

Lord! I am vile, conceived in sin /. Watts 

Lord, I approach the mercy seat y. Newton 

Lord ! I cannot let Thee go y. Newton 

Lord, I delight in Thee y. Ryland 

Lord! I have made Thy word my /. Watts 

Lord, I have sinned, but O forgive. .H. F. Lyte 

Lord ! I hear of showers of Miss E. Codner 

Lord, I look for all to Thee H. F. Lyte 

Lord ! I will bless Thee all my days. ./. Watts 

Lord, if at Thy command C. Wesley 

Lord, if Thou Thy grace impart C. Wesley 

Lord, in the desert bleak and bare. y. Anstice 
Lord ! in the morning Thou shalt hear./. Watts 

Lord ! in this sacred hour S.G. Buljinch 

Lord, in Thy great, Thy Miss A . Steele (a) 

Lord, in Thy name. Thy servants y. Keble 

Lord ! it belongs not to mycaie .. R. Baxter 

Lord, it is not life to live A.M. Toplady 

Lord Jesus ! are we one with Thee..^. G. Deck 

Lord Jesus, God and man //. W. Baker 

Lord Jesus, when I think y. G. Deck 

Lord Jesus, when we stand afar....fK. W. How 
Lord Jesus, why, why dost Thou.y. A nstice (a) 
Lord ! lead the way the Saviour. . . W. Croswell 
Lord, let me know mine end. .J. Montgomery 

Lord, like the publican I stand T. Raffles 

Lord, look on all assembled here y. Hart 

Lord, may the inward grace abound.. .A". Osier 
Lord, may the spirit o{..Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 
Lord, may we feel no anxious care./?. Baxter (a) 
Lord, my weak thought in vain. . . .R. Palmer 
Lord, now we part in Thy blest name./?. Heber 
Lord of all being, throned afar..6'. W. Holmes 

Lord of all power and might H . Stowell 

Lord of all worlds ! incline Thy T. Dwigkt 

Lord of earth ! Thy forming hand R. Grant 

Lord of eternal purity Tr., E, Caswall 

Lord of every land and nation /?. Robinson 

Lord of hosts ! how bright, how fair../?. Turner 
Lord of Hosts, to Thee we raise.J. Montgomery 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



709 



Lord of immensity sublime Gregory I. 

Lord of life, Prophetic spirit J. Keble 

Lord of mercy and of might K. Heber 

Lord of my life ! Oh may Thy. .Miss A . Steele 
Lord of our hearts ! beloved of Thee. £. Denny 
Lord of the Church, we humbly pray. . E. Osier 
Lord of the harvest, bend Thine... f. Hastings 

Lord of the harvest ! hear C. IVesley 

Lord, on whose bounty we depend . E. Osier 

Lord of the harvest, once again y. A tisiice 

Lord of the harvest ! Thee we. . .y. H. Gurney 
Lord of the living harvest. ..y. S. B. Monsell 
Lord of the lofty and the low. ... T'. W. Aveling 
Lord of the Sabbath ! hear our . .P. Doddridge 

Lord of the worlds above ! /. IVntts 

Lord of the world's majestic frame. .. T. yervis 
Lord, pour Thy Spirit from on . '/. Montgomery 
Lord ! send Thy word and let it. . . . T. Gibbons 
Lord, shed a beam of heavenly day . y. Hart 
Lord ! lake my heart and let. . . .Tr., y. Wesley 

Lord ! teach us how to pray y. Montgomery 

Lord, that I may learn of Thee E. Osier 

Lord, Thou art my rock of strength 

Tr.. Miss C. IVinkworth 
Lord ! Thou hast called Thy grace to./. Watts 

Lord ! Thou hast scourged our y. Rarlozu 

Lord ! Thou hast searched and seen. . /. Watts 
Lord, Thou hast taught our hearts.. A'. Palmer 
Lord ! Thou hast won at length. \..y. Neiuton 
Lord, Thou on earth didst love. . R. Pahner 

Lord ! Thou wilt bring thejoyful R. Palmer 

Lord ! Thou wilt hear me when I /. Watts 

Lord, 1 hy children guide and W. W. Hoiv 

Lord, Thy Church hath seen Thee. ../-K. Goode 

Lord ! Thy glory fills the heaven R. Mant 

Lord, Thy word abideth H.W. Baker 

Lord! 'tis an infinite delight . /. Watts 

Lord ! 't is a pleasant thing to stand. ./. Watts 
Lord, we adore Thy boundless. .yTfzj.f^. Steele 

Lord ! we adore Thy vast designs /. Watts 

Lord, we are vile, conceived in sin . /. Watts 
Lord ! we come before Thee . W. Hammond 
Lord! we confess our numerous . /. Watts 
Lord ! we raise our cry to Thee.//. H. Milman 

Lord ! what a feeble piece /. Watts 

Lord ! what a heaven of saving grace./. Watts 

Lord ! what a wretched land is this /. Watts 

Lord I what avails our strife C. Wesley 

Lord ! what Thy providence Miss A. Steele 

Lord ! when I all things would T. H. Gill 

Lord ! when I quit this earthly stage../. Watts 

Lord ! when my raptured Miss A . Steele 

Lord! when Thine Israel we..../". Doddridge 

Lord ! when this holy C. Heginbothom 

Lord! when Thou didst ascend on..../. Watts 
Lord ! when we bend before Thy.J. D. Carlyle 
Lord! when we creation scan.... J. D. Carlyle 

Lord! where shall guilty souls /. Watts 

Lord ! with glowing heart I'll praise. ./^ S. Key 

Loud hallelujahs to the Lord /. Watts 

Love divine, all loves e.\-celling C. Wesley 

Loving shepherd of Thy . . . Miss J. E. Leeson 

Lowly and solemn be Mrs. h'. D. Hematis 

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned...?. Stennett 

Make haste, O man, to live H. Bo'iar 

Make us by Thy transforming. . :!//« A. Steele 
Maker of all things, God. .Tr.,/. Z>. Chambers 
Maker of all things, mighty Lord 

E. Osier, from P. Doddridge 
Maker of earth, to Thee alone.Tr.,7. M.Neale 

Man's wisdom is to seek W. Cowper 

Many centuries have fled y. Conder 

Many woes had Christ endured y. Hart 

Marked as the purpose of the skies.. C. T. Noel 

Mary to the Saviour's tomb /. Newton 

May not the sovereign Lord on high../. Watts 
May the grace of Christ, our Saviour./. Newton 

May we Thy precepts, Lord E. Osier 

Meekly in Jordan's holy stream.. .S. F. Smith 



Meet and right it is to sing C. Wesley 

Memory of the blest departed. . .A. T. Gurney 

Men of God, go take your stations 7'. Kelly 

Mercy, O thou Son of David ! ./. Newton 

Messiah, at Thy glad approach /)/. Bruce 

Mid evening shadows let us all be watching 

Gregory, I r., K. Palmer 
Mighty God ! while angels bless. . .A'. Robimon 
Mighty One, before whose {ace..W. C. Bryant 

Millions within Thy courts y. Montgo7nery 

Mine hour appointed is at hand 

N. Hermann, Tr., R. Massie 
Mistaken souls! that dieam of heaven./. Watts 

Mine eyes and my desire /. Watts 

More love to Thee Mrs. E. P. Prenti.is 

Morning breaks upon the tomb. W. B. Collyer 

Mortals, awake! with angelsjoin S'. Medley 

Most ancient of all mysteries F, W. Faber 

Most high and holy trinity. Tr.,yl/Mj F. E. Cox 

M uch in sorrow, oft in woe //. K. White 

Music ! bring thy sweetest ./. Edmeston 

My blessed Saviour, is Thy love... 7. Stennett 

My country ! 'tis of thee S. F. Smith 

My days are gliding swiftly by D. Nelson 

My dear Redeemer and mv Lord I. . . ./. Watts 
My drowsy powers ! why sleep ye so. ./. Watts 
My faith looks up to Thee .. .. . R. Palmer 
My Father, God ! how sweet the. P. Doddridge 

My former hopes are fled W. Cowper 

My God ! accept my early vows /'. Watts 

My God ! accept my heart this daj.y)/ Bridges 
My God and Father! while I.. Miss C. Elliott 

My God ! and is Thy table P. Doddridge 

My God ! how endless is Thy love /. Watts 

My God! how wonderful Thou... A". W. Faber 
My God, I love Thee, not because 

F. Xavier, Tr., E. Caswall 
My God, in whom are all the springs./. Watts 
My God ! is any hour so sweet.. yV/jj C. Elliott 

My God, my everlasting hope /. Watts 

My God, my Father! blissful. . ./1/?>j /i. Steele 
My God, my Father ! while \...Miss C. Elliott 
My God, my King ! thy various praise./. Watts 

My God, my Life, my Love ! /. Watts 

My God, my I'ortion, and my Love!../. Watts 

My God, my reconciled God y. Ma^vn 

My God ! oh ! could I make Xhe.Miss A . Steele 

My God ! permit me not to be /. Watts 

My God ! permit my tongue I. U atts 

My God ! the covenant of Thy. .P. Doddridge 
My God ! the Spring of all my joys.../. Watts 
My God ! Thy boundless love I \>Ta\ss.H .Moore 

My God ! Thy service well J'. Doddridge 

My God ! 't is to Thy mercy-f,eat. Miss A. Steelt 

My God, what monuments I see H. F. Lyte 

My gracious Lord ! I own Thy. .P. Doddridge 

My gracious Redeemer I love B. Francis 

My head is low, my heart is sad. 7- .S". B. Monsell 
My Helper, God ! I bless His..../". Doddridge 
My Jesus ! as Thou wilt 

B. Schmolke. Tr., Missy. Borthwick 
My Lord ! how full of sweet content. W, Cowper 
My Lord, my love, was crucified. . . 7- Mason 

My Maker and my King ! Miss A. Steele 

My never-ceasing song shall show /. Watts 

My opening eyes with rapture see. . . ./. Watts 
My rest is in heaven, my rest is not.//. F. Lyte 

My Saviour and my King /. Watts 

My Saviour hanging on the tree. . . ./. Newton 
My Saviour ! I am Thine. ..... P. Doddridge 

My Saviour, my almighty Friend ! /. Watts 

My Saviour, Thou Thy love to me..C Wesley 
My Saviour, whom absent I love... W. Cowper 

My Shepherd is the living Lord /. Watts 

My Shepherd will supply my need /. Watts 

My sins, my sins, my Saviour./. S. B. Monsell 

My soul ! be on thy guard G. Heath 

My soul ! come meditate the day. . . /. Watts 
My soul complete in Jesus.yl/rf. G. W. Hinsdatt 



710 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



My soul doth magnify the Lord J. Mason 

My soul forsakes her vain delip:ht /. Watts 

My soul ! how lovely is the place /i Watts 

My soul lies cleaving to the dust /. Watts 

My soul! repeat His praise /. Watts 

My soul, triumphant in the P. Doddridge 

My soul with joy attend P.Doddridge 

My spirit longs for Thee J. Byrom 

My spirit looks to God alone /. Watts 

My spirit on thy care H. F. Lyte 

My spirit sinks within me, Lord /. Watts 

My sufferings all to Thee are known. C. Wesley 
My thoughts surmount these lower. , /. Watts 

My times are in Thy hand W. F. Lloyd 

My times of sorrow and of joy B. Beddome 

My trust is in the Lord H. F. Lyte 

Naked as from the earth we came /. Watts 

Nature with open volume stands /. Watts 

Near the cross was Mary. Tr.,y. W. Alexander 
Nearer, my God ! to Thee, .Mrs. S. F. Adams 

Nearer, O God, to Thee W.W. How 

New wonders of Thy mighty hand.. . C. Coffin 
New every morning is Thy love .. .J. Keble 
No change of time shall ever. . Tate and Brady 
No more, my God ! I boast no more. ./. Watts 
No more, ye wise ! your wisdom. .P. Doddridge 
No, no, it is not dying. Tr., R. P. Dunn 

No purple with his life blood . ..S. Victorinus 
No room for mirth or trifling here.. . . C. Wesley 

No seas again shall sever H. Bonar 

No track is on the sunny sky F. W. Faber 

Nor eye has seen, nor ear has heard../. Watts 

Not all the blood of beasts /. Watts 

Not all the outward forms on earth. . ./. Watts 
Not by the martyr's death. .Sa«/o/z«j Victorinus 
Not for the dead in Christ. yl/ri-. A.L. Barbauld 
Not here, as to the prophet's. . . J. Montgomery 

Not to condemn the sons of men /. Watts 

Not to the terrors of the Lord L Watts 

Not unto us, but Thee, O Lord 

T. Cotterill, from y. Cennick 

Not what I feel or do H. Bonar 

Not what I am, O Lord, but what. . .H. Bonar 
Not what these hands have done. . . .H. Bonar 

Not with our mortal eyes /. Watts 

Not worthy. Lord ! to gather. ..£■. Bickersteth 

Not yet. ye people of His grace T. H. Gill 

Now be my heart inspired to sing. .. /. Watts 

Now be the gospel banner T. Hastings 

Now begin the heavenly theme.. /I/". Madan (?) 
Now, by the love of Christ, my God../. Watts 
Now Christ gone up to whence he .. Ambrose 
Now doth the sun ascend the sky 

Ambrose, Tr., E. Caswall 
Now faintly smile day's hasty. . .Miss A. Steele 

Now for a tune of lofty praise /. Watts 

Now, from labor and from care. . . T. Hastings 
Now, from the altar of our hearts . . .?. Mason 

Now, God, be with us Miss C. Winkiuortk 

Now, gracious Lord ! thine arm. . . . .J. Newton 

Now I have found a Friend H.J. M. Hope 

Now I know the great Redeemer./?. Burnham 

Now I resolve with all my Miss A. Steele 

Now in song of grateful praise. ...5. Medley (a) 
Now, in parting. Father ! bless us. . .H. Bonar 

Now is th' accepted time ./. Dobell 

Now let my soul, eternal O. Heginbothom 

Now let our cheerful eyes P. Doddridge 

Now let our mournful songs record. . ./. Watts 
Now let our mourning hearts ..P. Doddridge 

Now let our songs arise _ W. Goode 

Now let our souls, on wings sublime. T. Gibbons 

Now let our voices join P. Doddridge 

Now let the feeble all be strong. .P. Doddridge 
Now let us join with hearts and. . . /. Newton 
Now let us raise our cheerful . . Miss A . Steele 
Now let your notes of praise. . .Miss F. E. Cojc 
Now may He, who from the dead. . ./. Newton 
Now may the gospel's conquering T. Kelly 



Now may the mighty arm a\»ake T. Kelly 

Now may the "-pirit's holy fire A*. Seagrave 

Now morning lifts her dewy. ._lr.,_/. Chandler 
Now, my soul, thy voice upraising 

Santolius Maglorianus, Tr., H. W. Baker 
Now, O God, Thine own I am. .-. . . . . C. Wesley 
Now shall my solemn vows be paid. . ./. Watts 
Now thank we all, our. Ir.^I^Iiss C. Winkwortk 
Now that the sun is beaming \ix\^i . . A mbrose 
Now that the daylight fills the sky.. Ambrose 

Now to the Lord a noble song /. Watts 

Now to the Lord, that makes us . ../. Watts 

Now to the power of God supreme /. Watts 

Now to Thy sacred house T. Dwigitt 

O blessed day, when first was.Tr., J. Chandler 

O blessed Jesus, Lamb of God J. G. Deck 

O blessed Saviour, is Thy love. . . J. Stennett 
O blessed sun ! whose splendor.Tr., R. Massie 

O bread, to pilgrims given Tr., R. Palmer 

O cease, my wandering W. A . Muhlenberg 

O Christ, our Hope, our Tr.,_/. Chandler 

O Christ, our King, Creator. . .Tr., R. Palmer 
O Christ ! our true and.Tr., Miss C. Winkwortk. 
O Christ, Redeemer of our race..//. W. Baker 
O Christ, the Lord of heaven ! to...R. Palmer 

O Christ, unseen yet truly near E. Osier (a) 

O Christ, who art both night. .Tr., W. Mercer 
O Christ, who hast prepared a place 

Santolius Victorinus, Tr., J. Chandler 
O Christ, with each returning.Tr.,/. Chandler 
O come, all ye faithful, joyfuily.Tr., W. Mercer 
O come and mourn with me. ..F. W. Faber (a) 

O come. Creator Spirit, blest Gregory I. 

O come, O come, Emmanuel 

Twelfth Century, Tr.,/. M. Neale 

O come, ye sinners, to your Lord C. Wesley 

O day of rest and gladness !. ...C. Wordsworth 
O dreadful glory, that doth make. . ./. H. Gill 
O faith ! thou workest miracles. . .F. W. Faber 

O Father, let me be W. H. Bathurst 

O Father of long-suffering grace J. Keble 

O Father, Thou who.Tr., i\Hss C. Winkwortk 
O Father, though the.. .Mrs. A. L. Barbauld 
O fount of good ! to own Thy. . .P. Doddridge 
O Garden of Olives, thou. .Miss M. de Fleury 
O give thanks to Him who made.. . .J. Conder 
O God ! beneath Thy guiding hand. ./^. Bacon 
O God, by whom the seed is given .. .R. Heber 
O God ! creation's secret force 

A mbrose, Tr.. J. M. Neale 
O God most high, the soul that../. Newton (a) 
O God, my heart is fully hent. Tate and Brady 

O God, my helper ever near /. Fawcett 

O God, my inmost soul convert C. Wesley 

O God, my strength and fortitude. T. Sternhold 
O God, my strength, my hope .. ..C. Wesley 

O God of Abraham ! hear. . . . . . T. Hastings 

O God of all the strength and ^owex.. Ambrose 
O God of Bethel ! by whose hand./". Doddridge 

O God of families, we own T. Raffles 

O God of hosts, the mighty Lord! N. Tate 

O God of love, O King of peace.. /i''. W. Baker 
O God of mercy, God of might. ..... /. Keble 

O God of mercy! hear my call .. .. /. Watts 

O God of truth, O Lord of might 

Ambrose, Tr.,/. M. Neale 
O God, our help in ages past .... /. Watts 
O God, our Saviour and our King. .5'. Browne 
O God, supreme, in rapt amaze./. D. Chambers 

O God that madest earth and sky R. Heber 

O God, the help of all Thy saints E. Osier 

O God, the Lord of time and place. . .Ambrose 
O God, the refuge of my soul.. .Miss A. Steele 

O God, the Son eternal. Thy R. Heber (a) 

O God ! Thou art my God /. Montgomery 

O God, Thy power is wonderful../". W. Faber 
O God, Thy soldiers' crown and guard. /3 mbrose 
O God, Thy soldiers' great reward 

Ambrose, Tr.,/. M. Neale 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



711 



O God. unseen, yet ever near I E. Osier 

O God ! we praise Thee, and. Tate and Brady 
O God who gav'st Thy servant grace. /C. Heber 
O gracious Father, bend Thine car. Gregory I. 
O gracious God, in whom I Ywe.Miss A. Steele 
O grant me. Lord, myself to see ... .E. Osier 
O hand of bounty, largely spread. . . .R. Heber 
O happy band of pilgrims . Tr.,y. M. Neale 
O happy saints who dwell in light. _?■. Berridge 

O happy soul that lives on high /. Watts 

O help us. Lord ! each hour of..//. H. Milrnan 

O help us, Lord ! in all our need E. Osier 

O Holy Ghost, Thou fount of..Tr., E. Caswall 
O holy, holy, holy Lord !.. . J. IV. Eastburn 
O holy, holy, holy Lord ! Thou. ... J. Conder 

O Holy Lord, content to dwell W. IV. How 

O holy Saviour, Friend unseen. Tlfzi'j C. Elliott 

O Holy Spirit! come O.Allen 

O Holy Spirit, Fount of Miss J. E. Leeson 

O Holy Spirit, Lord of grace 

C. Coffin, Tr.,/. Chandler 

O how blest the congregation H. F. Lyte 

O Israel ! to thy tents repair T. Kelly 

O Jesu, God and Man F. IV. Faber 

O Jesu, source of holiness Tr., /?. Mant (a) 

O Jesus, bruised and 3frs. C. F. Alexander 

O Jesus Christ, ifsin there be E. Caswall 

O Jesus, full of grace ! C. Wesley 

O Jesus ! in this solemn hour W. B. Collyer 

O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord ! F. W. Faber 

O Jesus ! King most Tr., E. Caswall 

O Jesus, Lord of he.avenly Tr.,/. Chandler 
O Jesus. Saviour of the lost.£'. H. Bickersteth 
O Jesus ! sweet the tears 1 shed. . . .R. Palmer 

O Jesus, Thou art standing W. W. How 

O Jesus ! Thou the beauty art. Tr., A". Caswall 

O King of angels! Ir.,/. D. Chambers (a) 

O King of earth, and air, and sea R. Heber 

O Lamb of God ! still keep J. G. Deck 

O Lord, and will Thy pardoning. . J. Fellows 
O Lord ! another day is flown. . ..H.K. White 

O Lord! be with us when we D. Nelson 

O Lord, defend us as of old W. H. Bathurst 

O Lord ! how full of sweet . . . Mme. Guyon 

O Lord ! how good, hov/ great art. .H. F. Lyte 
O Lord ! how happy should we be. ../.A nstice 

O Lord ! how infinite Thy love H. F. Lyte 

O Lord ! how joyful 't is to see 

Santolius I'ictorimis, 'i'r.,/. Chandler 
O Lord ! I would delight in Thee. . ./. Ryland 

O Lord I in sorrow I resign Tr., W, Cowjier 

O Lord ! most high eternal King 

Ambrose., Tt..J. M. Neale 

O Lord I my best desire fulfill W. Cowper 

O Lord ! my Saviour and my King. .5'. Browne 
() Lord of earth, and air, and sea, .R. Heber (a) 
O Lord of heaven and earth. ...C. Wordsworth 
O Lord of hosts ! whose glory fills /. M. Neale 
O Lord, our fathers oft have. . Tate and Brady 

O Lord, our God ! arise R. Wardlaw 

O Lord ! our heavenly King /. Watts 

O Lord, Thou art my Lord B. Beddome 

O Lord, Thy Church with . . . W. H. Bathurst 

O Lord ! Thy peifect word B. Beddome 

O Lord, Thy pitying eye surveys. P. Doddridge 
O Lord ! Thy work revive, .yl/ri. /". H. Brown 
O Lord ! we now the path retrace. .J. G. Deck 

O Lord, who by Thy Ir., Massic 

O Love, beyond the reach of thought.y. Conder 
O Love, divine and tender. J. S. B. Monsell 
O Love divine ! how sweet Thou art.C. Wesley 
O Love divine ! that stooped to.O. W. Holmes 

O Love divine ! what hast 1 hou C. Wesley 

O Love ! how deep, how broad . . . y. M. Neale 
O Love of God, how strong and true.)*/. Sonar 
O Love, who formedst me to wear../. Scheffler 

O merciful Creator, hear Gregory I. 

O most merciful R. Heber 

O mother dear, Jerusalem ! D. Dickson 



O my God, how Thy salvation .y. S. B. Monsell 

O my soul ! what means this J. Fawcett 

O one with God the Father Ho-va 

O paradise eternal ! T. Davis 

O Paradise ! O Paradise ! . . . .F. PV. Faber 

O perfect God and perfect Man y. Anstice 

O perfect life of love H. W. Baker 

O sacred head, now Tr.,y. W. Alexander 

O .sacred head, once wounded P. Gerhard 

O sacred head, surrounded 

Bernard de Clairvaztx, Tr., H. W. Baker 

O Saviour, bless us ere we go F. W. Faber 

O Saviour, is Thy promise fled R. Heber 

O Saviour, lend a listening ear. . . T. Hastings 

O Saviour of the faithful dead R. Heber 

O Saviour ! who for man hast trod C. Coffin 

O Saviour, whom this holy morn R. Heber 

O sinner, lift the eye of faith. .Tr.,/. M. Neale 

O sinner, why so thoughtless ./. Rippon 

O Sion, open wide thy. . .Santolius Victorinus 
O Son of God, in glory. Mrs. C. F. .Alexander 
O sons and daughters, let us. Tr.,/. M. Neale 

O Spirit of the living God ! /. Montgomery 

O suffering Friend of human . . .6". G. Bulfinch 
O Sun of righteousness, arise. . P. Doddridge 
O Thou above all praise ■-->/• Montgomery 
O Thou almighty source of. . ..Tr , E. Caswall 

O Thou, by long experience Mme. Guyon 

O Thou essential I r , Miss C. Winkworth 

O Thou everlasting Father /. Montgomeiy 

O Thou, from whom all goodness. . . T. Haweis 

O Thou God of my salvation T. Olivers 

O Thou God, who hearest prayer !.. ./. Conder 
O Thou in earth and heaven adored. . E. Osier 
O Thou, in whose presence my soul /. Swain 
O Thou, my life, my light, my. J. Motitgomery 

O Thou, that hearest prayer ! /. Bzirton 

O Thou, that hear'st the prayer.^. JSL Toplady 
O Thou, that hear'st when sinners cry./. Waits 
O Thou, the contrite sinner's. .A/iss C. Elliott 
O Thou, the Father's image blest. .E. Caswall 

O Thou, to whom all Tate and Brady 

O Thou, to whose all-searching. Tr.,/. Wesley 
O Thou, who by a star didst guide./. M. Neale 
O Thou, who dost to man...Tr.,/. W.Hewett 
O Thou, who dry'st the mourner's .. T. Moore 
O I'hou, who gavest Thy servant. . . .R. Heber 
O Thou, who hearest the . . ..A. M. Toplady 
O Thou, who in Jordan didst . G. W. Bethune 
O Thou, who in the form of . . . . T. Cotterill (a) 
O Thou, who in the olive. Mrs. F. D. Hemans 

O Thou, whom wc adore C. Wesley 

O Thou, who;e all-reds:eming. . .R. M. Benson 
O Thou, whose bounty fills. .y)f?'j./. Crewdson 
O Thou, whose mercy gLiides my. J. Edmeston 
O Thou, whose mercy, truth S.V.A..E. Osler{?!) 
O Thou, whose own vast temple.. W. C. Bryant 
O Thou, whose sacred feet have.. ./. D. Burns 
O Thou, whose filmed and .A. R. Thompson 
O Thou, whose tender mercy.. .Miss A. Steele 

O timely happy, timely wise J. Keble 

O Trinity most blessed light. .Tr.,/. M. Neale 
O turn, great Ruler of the skies . . /. Merrick 
O who shall dare in this frail scene. . . ./. A'eble 
() wondrous type, O vision fair.Tr.,/. 3/. Neale 

O Word of God, Incarnate W. W. How 

O ye who followed Chri t. . .Tr., /. Chandler 
O Zion, open wide Thy gates.. Tr., E. Casnuall 

O Zion ! tune Thy voice P. Doddridge 

Object of my first desire A. M. Toplatly 

O'er the distant mountains. . .J. S. B. Monsell 
O'er the gloomy hills of darkness. W. Williams 
O'er the realms of pagan darkness.. 7". Cotterill 
O'erwhelmed in depths of woe..Tr., E. Caswall 
Of all that live, and move, and./. Montgojnery 

Of all the joys we mortals know /. Watts 

Of Him who did Bernard of Clairvaux 

Of the Father's love begotten 

Tr., H. W. Baker and J. M. Neale 



712 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



Of Thy love some gracious token T. Kelly 

Oft as I look upon the road T. Kelly 

"' 'a sori.jw, oft in woe //. K. While 

bless the Lord, my soul. . ./• Montgomery 

bless the Lord, my soul ! /. Watts 

blessed souls are they /. Watts 

brothers, lift your voices.jE'. H. Bickersteth 
cease, my wandering. . W. A. Muhlenberg- 
come, all ye faithful.. Tr., E. Caswall 

come and mourn with me F. W. Faber 

come, loud anthems let us sing. ..jV. Tate 

could I speak the matchless 5. Medley 

could our thoughts and ..Miss A. Steele 

deem not they are blest W. C. Bryant 

for a beam of heavenly . . . W. H. Bathurst 
for a closer walk with God . . W. Cowper 
for a faith that will not. . . W. H. Bathurst 

for a glance of heavenly day J. Hart 

for a heart to praise my God. ...C. Wesley 
for a shout of s,acred joy ..... /. Watts 

for a sight, a pleasing sight /. Watts 

for a strong, a lasting faith /. Watts 

for a sweet inspiring ray. ...Miss A. Steele 
for a thousand tongues to sing. . C Wesley 

for an overcoming faith /. Watts 

for that flame of living, . . W. H. Bathurst 

for that tenderness of heart C. Wesley 

for the death of those S. F. Smith 

for the happy hour G. IV. Bethune 

for the peace which.. . .Mrs. J. Crewdson 
for the robes of. Mrs. C. L. Bancroft 
gift ot gifts ! Oh ! grace of. ..F. W. Faber 
had I, my Saviour! the wings.//. F. Lyte 
happy day, that fixed my. . .P. Doddridge 
give thanks to Him who made. .J. Conder 
how divine, how sweet the. . .J. Needham 

how happy are they C. Wesley 

how I love Thy holy law /. Watts 

how shall I receive I hee P. Gerhard 

how the thought of God ...F. W. Faber 
if my soul were formed for woe. ./. Watts 
it is hard to write for God. . ..F. W. Faber 
joyful sound I oh, glorious hour. T. Kelly 
let him, whose sorrow. I'r., Miss F. E. Cox 
let me, heavenly Lord ! extend.y. Merrich 
let my trembling soul be still. ._/. Bowring 

may my heart, by grace J. Fawcett 

may our lips and lives express 

E. Osier, from /. Watts 
mean may seem this house of. . T. H. Gill 
might I once mount up and see../. Watts 
not my own these verdant. . .T. F. Smith 
not to fill the mouth of fame. ..T.H. Gill 

praise our God to-day H. W. Baker 

praise ye the Lord, prepare your. M Tate 
render thanks to God ... Tate and Brady 
see how Jesus trusts himself./'". ]V. Faber 
sing to me of. . ...Mrs. M. S. B. Shimiler 
speak that gracious word again.y. Newton 

sweetly breathe the lyres R. Palmer 

tell me. Thou life and delight. T. Hastings 

that I could for ever dwell A. Reed 

that I could for ever sit C. Wesley 

that I could repent C. Wesley 

that I knew the secret place /. Watts 

that my load of sin weregone..C. Wesley 
that the Lord would guide my. . ./. Watts 

that the Lord's salvation H. F. Lyte 

that thou wouldst, the heavens. C Wesley 
that Thy statutes every hour . . ./. Watts 
the delights, the heavenly joys.. ./. Watts 
the hour when this material . J. Conder 
the sweet wonders of that cross../. Watts 
this soul how dark and blind.. .//. Bonar 

't is delight without alloy /. Watts 

turn ye. Oh ! turn ye, for why.y. Hopkins 

't was a joyful sound to hea.- N. Tate 

what a lonely path were ours. . .E. Denny 
what amazing words of grace. . .6". Medley 



Oh ! what, if we are Christ's. ... H, W. Baker 

Oh ! what stupendous mercy T. Gibbons 

Oh ! what the joy and the... .Tr.,/. M. Neale 
Oh ! what unbounded zeal and love. //'. Coivper 
Oh ! when my righteous Judge shall. 6". Shirley 
Oh ! where are kings and empires. .A. C. Coxe 
Oh ! where is now that glowing love. . T. Kelly 
Oh ! where shall rest be found /. Montgomery 
Oh ! wherefore. Lord, doth Thy dear. T. H. Gill 
Oh ' who, in such a world as . J. Montgomery 

Oh ! why so heavy, O my soul E. Caswall 

Oh ! worship the King, all-glorious.. /i. Grant 
Oh ! write upon my memory. Lord. . ./. Watts 

On God the race of man depend /. Watts 

On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry 

C. Coffin, Tr.,/. Chandler 
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand. ..S. Stennett 

On our way rejoicing f.S.B. Monsell 

On the fount of life eternal. . .Tr., E. Caswall 
On the hill of Zion standing./:. //. Bickersteth 

On the mountain's top appearing T. Kelly 

On Thee, each morning, O my God.^. Kippis 
On this day, the first of days ...//. W. Baker 
On this, the day which saw the. . ./. M. Neale 

On towards Zion, on T. W. A veling 

On wings of living light W. W. How 

On Zion and on Lebanon. ..H. U. Onderdonk 
Once I thought my mountain strong. y. Newton 
Once in royal David's. .Mrs. C. F. Alexander 

Once more, before we part J. Hart 

Once more, my soul I the rising day../. Watts 

Once more, O Lord, Thy sign G. W. Doane 

Once more the solemn season calls 

C. Cojfin, Tr., W. Mercer 
Once more we come before our God. . . J. Hart 

Once to other lords we bowed T. Kelly 

One cup of healing oil. ..D. T. K. Drummond 
One prayer 1 have, all prayers../. Montgomery 

One sole baptismal sign R.Robinson 

One sweetly solemn thought Miss P. Cary 

One there is, above all others J. Newton 

Onward, Christian, though the S.Johnson 

Onward, onward, m.e.n. .Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 
Onward, onward, though the xegxon.S. Johnson 
Open now Thy gates.Tr., Miss C. Wink^vorth 
(Oppressed with noonday's scorching.//. Bonar 

Our country is Mrs. A . L. Barbauld 

Our festal morn is come W. H. Havergal 

Our few revolving years B. Beddome 

Our glorious home above./). T. K. Drummond 
Our God is love, and all His . . 7'. Cotterill (?) 

Our God, our Help in ages past /. Watts 

Our God stands firm, a rock M. Luther 

Our heavenly Father calls P. Doddridge 

Our heavenly Father ! hear J. Montgomery 

Our helper, God, we bless Thy. .P. Doddridge 

Our land, O Lord ! with songs C. Wesley 

Our land, with mercies crowned. £. T. Winkler 

Our life is hid with Christ H. Bonar 

Our limbs refreshed with slumber. y. M. Neale 

Our Lord is risen from the dead C. Wesley 

Our sins on Christ were laid . J. Fawcett 

Our souls shall magnify the... ."J. Montgomery 

Our times are in Thy hand W. F. Lloyd 

Ours is the grief who still. ../?. //. Bickersteth 

Out of the deeps of long distress /. Watts 

Out of the depths I cry to Thee. ...M. Luther 
Out of the depths of woe ..../. Montgomery 
Pain and toil are over .Mrs. C. F. Alexander 
Palms of glory, raiment bright./. Montgomery 
Parent of all, whose love displayed. .../?. A/aw/ 
Pardoned through redeeming grace.. .£■. Osier 
Part in peace, Christ's \\{e...Mrs. S. F. Adams 
Paschal Lamb, by God appointed./. Bakewell 

Pass away, earthly joy ! Mrs. H. Bonar 

Past IS her day of grace J. Keble (a) 

Peace be to this . . ..C. Wesley and J. Conder 

Peace, peace I leave with you T. Hastings 

Peace ! 't is the Lord Jehovah's../'. Doddridge 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



713 



Peace, troubled soul, whose . W. Shirley 

People of the living God ! J. Montgomery 

Permit me, Lord ! to seek Thy..;)/zjj A. Steele 

Pilgrim ! burdened with thy sin G. Crabbe 

pilgrims in this vale of sorrow T. Hastings 

pilgrims we are, and strangers. . . . J. Burton 
planted in Christ, the living vine. 5. F. Smith 
pleasant are Thy courts above. . .H. F. Lyte 

plunged in a gulf of dark despair /. Pl^atts 

Poor, weak and worthless tho' I am._/. Newton 
Pour down Thy Spirit, gracious./. Newtoti (a) 
Pour out 1 hy Spirit from on...y. Montgomery 

Praise, everlasting praise be paid I. Watts 

Praise God, from whom all blessings. . . T. Ken 
Praise God, who sent His ...Tr.,/. Chandler 
Praise, Lord, for Thee in Zion waits.//. F. Lyte 
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven.//. F. Lyte 
Praise, O praise our God and ...//. IV. Baker 

Praise on Thee in Zion's gates J. Conder 

Praise the God of our salvation.. . . J. Conder 
Praise the Lord, His glories show. H. F. Lyte 
Praise the Lord through every. y. Mo"tgomery 
Praise the Lord, who reigns above.. C. iVesley 

Praise the Lord, ye heavens J. Kempthorne 

Praise the Saviour ! all ye nations \.B. Fj-ancis 

Praise the Saviour ! ye who know T. Kelly 

Praise to God, immortal. vT/rj. A. L, Barbauld 
Praise to God, who reigns above. /v. M. Benson 

Praise to the Holiest in the y. H. Newman 

Praise to the Lord, who left the sky E. Osier 
Praise to the radiant Source of../". Doddridge 
Praise to Thee, Thou great Creator./. Fawcett 
Praise waits in Zion, Lord ! for thee. /. Watts 

Praise ye Jehovah's name W. Goode 

Praise ye the Lord.e.\alt His name.../. Watts 
Praise ye the Lord, immortal choirs !../. Watts 
Praise ye the Lord, let praise.. .Miss A. Steele 
Praise ye the Lord, my heart shall.. . ./. Watts 
Praise to Him whose love has given..//. Bonar 

Pray without ceasing, pray C. Wesley 

Prayer is appointed to convey J. Hart 

Prayer is the breath of God in. . . .B. Beddome 

Prayer is the soul's sincere J. Montgomery 

Prepare us. Lord, to view T. Cotterill 

Prince of martyrs. Thou. .Santolius Victorinus 

Pris'ners of sin and Satan too J. Hoskins 

Proclaim the lofty praise . .Mrs. S. B.Judson 
Prostrate, dear Jesus I at thy feet.. 5. Stennett 

Put thou thy trust in God P. Gerhardt 

Quiet, Lord ! my froward heart J. Newton 

Raise thee, my soul, fly up and run. ../. Watts 

Raise your triumphant songs L Watts 

Redeemed from guilt, redeemed . . H. F. Lyte 
Redeemer ! now Thy work is done....C. Coffin 
Redeemer of the nations, come 

Ambrose, Tr., W.Mercer 
Rejoice, all ye .. Tr., A'liss J. Borthwick 

Rejoice in Jesus' birth C. Wesley 

Rejoice, rejoice, believers L. Laurenti 

Rejoice, the Lord is King C. Wesley 

Rejoice to-day with one accord..//. W. Baker 
Rejoice, ye righteous ! in the Lord. . . ./. Watts 
Rejoice, ye shining worlds on high. . ./. Watts 

Religi in is the chief concern y. Fawcett 

Remark, my soul, the narrow.. .P. Doddridge 
Remember thee, remember.. ..../?. Wardlaiu 

Repent ! the voice celestial cries./*. Doddridge 

Rest from Thy labor, rest J. Montgofnery 

Rest for the toiling hand H. Bonar 

Return, my roving heart ! P. Doddridge 

Return, my soul, enjoy tliy rest. . ..y. Stennett 

Return, my wandering soul W. B. Collyer 

Return, O God of love ! return /. Watts 

Return, O wanderer ! return W. B. Collyer 

Return, O wanderer, to thy home.. T. Hastings 

Revive Thy work, O Lord ! A. Midlane 

Rich are the joys which cannot.../*. Doddridge 

Ride on, ride on, in majesty H. H. Milman 

Rise, glorious Conqueror ! rise M. Bridges 



Rise, gracious God, and shine W. Hum. 

Rise, my soul ! and stretch thy. . .R. Seagrave 
Rise, O my soul ! pursue the path./. Needham 
Rock of ages, cleft for me ! . . . .A. M. Toplady 
Roll on, 1 hou mighty ocean \. . . .y. Edmeston 

Round the Lord in glory seated R. Mant 

Royal day, that chasest gloom. Tr.,_/. M.Neale 

Safe home, safe home in port J. M. Neale 

Safely through another week .J. Newton 

Saints ! with pious zeal attending. . . .J. Taylor 

Salvation doth to God belong P. Doddridge 

Salvation is for ever nigh /. Watts 

Salvation ! Oh! the joyful sound. .. /. Watts 

Saved ourselves by Jesus' blood T. Kelly 

Saviour, abide with us .J. M. Neale 

Saviour, bless Thy word to all T. Kelly 

Saviour ! breathe an evening J. Edmeston 

Saviour divine ! we know Thy. ..P. Doddridge 

Saviour, happy would I be E. H, Net/in 

Saviour, hasten Thine appearing J. G. Deck 

Saviour ! I follow on C. S. Robinson 

Saviour, I look to Thee T. Hastings 

Saviour, I Thy word believe A. M, Toplady 

Saviour, let Thy sanction lest. . . . T. Raffies 
Saviour ! like a shepherd. .Miss D. A. Thrupp 
Saviour of all, what hast Thou done.C. Wesley 

Saviour of our ruined race T. Hastings 

Saviour, send a blessing to us 7". Kelly 

Saviour, source of every blessing. ../?. Robinson 
Saviour! sprinkle many nations . . A. C. Coxe 
Saviour, teach me day by A.a.y.Miss J. E. Leesofi 
Saviour, through the desert lead us.... T. Kelly 

Saviour, Thy gentle voice T. Hastings 

Saviour, Thy law we. . . .Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 

Saviour! Thyself to me reveal C Wesley 

Saviour ! visit Thy plantation. . . J. Newton 

Saviour ! when, in dust to Thee R. Grant 

Saviour, who Thy flock art. (K. A. Muhlenberg 

Saviour, whom our hearts adore E. Osier 

Saviour, whose love could stoop E. Osier 

Saw ye not the cloud arise C. Wesley 

Say, sinner, hath a voice Mrs. A. B. Hyde 

See a poor sinner, dearest Lord. . . . .S. Medley 
See from Zion's sacred mountain.. T, Kelly 

See, gracious God ! before Thy.. Miss A. Steele 

See, how great a flame aspires C. Wesley 

See how the morning sun Miss E. Scott 

See in the vineyard of the Lord . . 7". Cotterill 

See Israel's gentle Shepherd P. Doddridge 

See, Jesus stands with open .Miss A. Steele 
See, oh ! see what love. C. Spitta, i'r., R. Massie 
See, the Conqueror mounts in..C. Wordsworth 

See the destined day arise R. Mant 

See the ransomed millions stand / Conder 

See, what a living stone /. Watts 

Seek, my soul, the narrow...//. U. Onderdonk 
Self-love no grace in sorrow sees. .Mme. Guyon 
Send out Thy light and truth../. Montgomery 
Servants of God ! well done !.../. Montgomery 
Servant of God ! well done ! . . . C. Wesley 
Servants of God, in joyful lays. ./. Montgomery 
Set in a high and favored place. ... .E. Osier 
Shall man", O God of life and light. . T. Dwight 
Shall science distant lands... W. Shrubsole"jr. 
Shall the vile race of flesh and blood.../. Watts 

Shall we go on to sin /. Watts 

Shepherd divine ! our wants relieve.. C. Wesley 
Shepherd of Israel ! bend Thine./*. Doddridge 

Shepherd of Israel ! from W. H. Bathurst 

Shepherd of Israel ! thou dost ..../*. Doddridge 
Shepherd of souls ! refresh and./. Montgomery 
Shepherd of Thine Israel, lead us.. .7. Conder 
Shine, mighty God ! on Zion shine. . ./. Watts 
Shine on our land. Jehovah, shine.. ../. Watts 
Shine on our souls, eternal God. P. Doddridge 

Shout, O earth W. H. Havergal 

Shout the glad tidings ... .W. A. Muhlenberg 

Show pity, Lord ! O Lord ! forgive /. Watts 

Since all the varying scenes of time./. Hervey 



714 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



Since Christ our Saviour is slain N. Tate 

Since I've known a Saviour's name. . C. IVesley 
Since Jesus freely did appear .. . ./. Berridge 

Since Jesus is my friend P. Gerhardt 

Since on Thy footstool IV. A. Muhlenberg 

Sing, all ye ransomed of the P. Doddridge 

Suig, my tongue ! the .Tr., E. Casiuail 

Sing, O heavens I O earth !.../. 3'. B. Monsell 

Sing of Jesus, sing for ever T. Kelly 

Sing, sing His lofty praise T. Kelly 

Sing the great Jehovah's praise G. Sandys 

bing to the Lord a joyful song. /. S. B. Monsell 
Sing to the Lord in joyful strains. . . .M. Bruce 

Sing to the Lord Jehovah's name /. Watts 

Sing to the Lord most high T. Dwight 

Sing to the Lord of harvest . . J. S. B. Monsell 

Sing to the Lord, our Might H. F. Lyte 

Sir^ to the Lord, ye distant lands . . ./. Watts 
Sing to the Lord, ye heavenly hosts !../. Watts 
Sing we the song of those who../. Montgomery 
Sing, ye redeemed of the Lord \..P. Doddridge 

Sing, ye seraphs in the sky T. Davis 

Sinner, come up with me A.M. Toplady 

Sinner, hear thy Saviour's call J. Newton 

Sinner ! Oh ! why so thoughtless /. Watts 

Sinner ! rouse thee from thy.//. U. Onderdonk 
Sinners, come, the Saviour. .N. L. Zinzendorf 

Sinners ! lift up your hearts . /. Wesley 

Sinners i obey the gospel word C. Wesley \ 

Sinners ! the voice of God regard. . J. Fawcett i 
Sinners ! turn, why will ye die? . . ..C. Wesley 
Sion, ope thy \\:x\\o\i<tii...Santolius Victorinus 
Sion's daughters, weep no. ..Tr., //. W. Baker 
Sister, thou most mild and lovely.. S.F. Smith 

Six days of labor now are past C. Coffin 

So fades the lovely blooming.. .Miss A. Steele 
So let our lips and lives express. .... ./. Watts 

Soft and holy is the place T. Hastings 

Soft be the gently breathing W. B. Collyer 

Softly fades the twilight ray 5". F. Smith 

Softly now the light of day G. W. Doane 

Soldiers of Christ ! arise C. Wesley 

Soldiers of the cross ! arise W. H . How 

Something every heart is loving. G. Tersteegen 

Sometimes a light surprises J. Newton 

Son of God, Thy blessing grant C. Wesley 

Son of God, to Thee I cry R. Mant 

Son of the Highest, deign. Tr., E. Caswall {a) 

Songs anew of honor framing W. Goode 

Songs of immortal praise belong /. Watts 

Songs of praise the angels sang. J. Montgomery 

Songs of thankfulness and C. Wordstuorth 

Sons of men ! behold from far C Wesley 

Sons of Zion ! raise your songs T. Kelly 

Soon and for ever, such ... J. S. B. Monsell 

Soon as I heard my Father say /. Watts | 

Soon the fiery sun ascending. .Tr., E. Caswall i 

Souls in heathen Mrs. C. F. Alexander j 

Sound, sound the truth abroad T. Kelly 

Sound the loud timbrel T. Moore 

Source of light and life .Tr., J. Chandler 

Sovereign of all the worlds P. Doddridge 

Sovereign Ruler, Lord of all ! T. Raff.es 

Sovereign Ruler of the skies ! f. Ryland 

Sow in the morn thy seed f. Montgomery 

Speak 10 me. Lord, Thyself reveal.. C. Wesley 
Speed Thy servants, Saviour, speed... T. Kelly 

Spirit divine ! attend our prayers A. Reed 

Spirit ! leave thy house of clay.y. Montgomery 

Spirit of everl .sting grace H. Bonar 

Spirit of faith ! come down C. Wesley 

Spirit of God ! that . . . .Mrs. C. F. A lexander j 

Spirit of holiness, descend S. F. Smith \ 

Spirit of holiness ! look down. JK H. Bathttrst 
Spirit of light and truth, to Thee .. ..J. Keble 

Spirit of peace and holiness S. F. Smith 

Spirit of peace, celestial dove.. .. H. F. Lyte 

Spirit of power and might ! J. Montgomery 

Spirit of power and truth.... W.L. Alexander 



Spirit of Truth, essential God C. Wesley 

Spirit of truth ! on this Thy day R. Heber 

Spirit of truth ! Thy grace impart..?'. Cotterill 
Spread, O spread. . . .Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 
Spring up, my soul, with a.T<i!:nt.. P. Doddridge 
Stand up, and bless the Lord . /. Montgomery 

Stand up, my soul ! shake off thy /. Watts 

,^tand up. stand up for Jesus G. Duffield 

Stars of the morning, so Tr.,_/. 71/. Neale 

Stay, Thou insulted Spirit ! stay C. Wesley 

Stealing from the world away R. Palmer 

Stern winter throws his icy. Miss A. Steele 

Still one in life, and one in death H. Bonar 

Still, still with Thee, my God \...J. D. Burns 
Stoop down, my thoughts ! that used../. Watts 
Strait is the way, the door is strait. . . ./. Watts 
Stietched on the cross, the. .. .Miss A. Steele 
Strangers and pilgrims here below. _/. M. Neale 

Strangers, pilgrims, here below f. Hoskitis 

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted /'. Kelly 

Suffering Son of man ! be near me. .C. Wesley 

Summer suns are glowing //'. H'. How 

Sun of my soul. Thou Saviour dear \. .y. Keble 
Sure, the blessed Comforter is . . Miss A . Steele 

Sure, there 's a righteous God /. Watts 

Surely, Christ thy griefs hath.. .A . M. Toplady 

Sweet and holy is the place 7". Hastings 

Sweet as the Shepherd's tuneful. . . W. Shirley 

Sweet feast of love divine K. Denny 

Sweet is the light of Sabbath eve..y. Edmeston 
Sweet is the memory of Thy grace. . . /. Watts 
Sweet is the scene when. Mrs. A. L. Barbauld 
Swee"" is the solemn voice that calls. /y. F. Lyte 
Sweet is the work, my (Jfcd, my King../. Watts 
Sweet is Thy mercy. Lord . . .f. S. B. Monsell 
Sweet peace of conscience ! ..O. Heginbothojn 
Sweet Saviour, bless us ere wego./^ W. Faber 
Sweet the moments, rich in blessing., y. Allen 
Sweet the time, exceeding ■^weet . . . .G. Burder 
Sweet was the time, when first I felt.y. Newton 
Sweeter sounds than music knows. . ._/. Newton 
Swell the anthem, raise the song.. . N. Strong 

Swift to its close ebbs out life's H. F. Lyte 

Take me, O my Father ! take me. . ./i. Pahner 
Take my poor heart, closed let. .Tr., J. Wesley 
Take, my soul ! thy full salvation . . .//. F, Lyte 
Talk with me. Lord, Thyself reveal.. C. W.-sley 
Tarry with me, O my Saviour ! Mrs.C. S. Smith 
Teach me the measure of my days. . . ./ Watts 
Teach me to do the thing . ..J.S.B. Monsell 
Ten thousand talents once I ov/ed. ._/. Newton 
Tender Shepherd. . .1 r.. .^/iss C. Winkworth 
Thank and praise Jehovah's . ./. Montgomery 

That awful day will surely come /. Watts 

That day of wrath, that dreadful day 

Thomas of Celano, Tr., W. Scott 
That doleful night before His death . . .J. Hart 
That Easter-tide with joy was bright 

Ambrose, i r., J. M. Neale 
That fearful day. that day of. .Tr., J. M. Neale 

That holy rite, that solemn vow E. Osier 

That we might walk with God B. Beddome 

The advent of our God 

C. Coffin, Tr., y. Chandler 
The angel comes ; he comes to reap../i. Heber 
The Apostles' hearts were full of pain 

A^nbrose, Tr., J. M. Neale 

The atoning work is done . T. Kelly 

The billows swell, the winds are .W. Cowper 
The bird let loose in Eastern skies. . . T. Moore 
The blessed Spirit, like the wind B. Beddome 

The chariot, the chariot, its H. H. Milman 

l^he church has waited long .H. Bonar 

The counsels of redeeming grace... 5. Stennett 
The dawn was purpling o'er..Tr., E. Caswall 

The day is gently sinking C. Wordsworth 

The day is past and gone J. Leland (?) 

The day is past and over 

St. A natolius, Tr., J. M. NeaU 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



715 



The day, O Lord! i^; spent J. M. Neale 

The day of rest once more comes T. Kelly 

The day of resurrection 

John Damascene^ Tr., J. M. Neale 
The day of wrath, that dreadful day..H''. Scoit 
The earth, O Lord, is one wide., .y. Af. Neale 
The eternal gales hh./i'/rs. C. F. Alexander (a) 
The eternal gifts of Christ the King 

A mbrose, Tr., J. M. Neale 

The eternal Spirit's gifts. Ambrose 

The festal morn, my God ! is come. J'. Merrick 
The fish in wave, and bird on wing. ..C. Cojf/in 
The foe behind, the deep before. J. M. Neale 
The gathering clouds, with aspect. J. Newton 
The gentle Saviour calls ...H. U. Ond^rdonk 

The glories of my Maker God /. Watts 

The glorious universe around. .y. Montgomery 

The God of Abraham praise T. Olivers 

The God of glory walksHis round. . .R. Hcher 

The God of harvest praise J. I\lontgomery 

The God of life, whose constant./'. Doddridge 

The God of love will sure Miss A . Steele 

The God of peace, who, from the. .£. T. Fitch 
The God of truth His church has. ... ?K. Hum 

The God who reigns on high T. Olivers 

The golden corn now waxes strong 

P. Gerhard, Tr., R. Massie 
The golden gates are. . .Mrs. C. F. Alexander 

The goodly land I see . . T. Olivers 

The great forerunner of the morn 

I'enerable Bede, Tr., J. M. Neale 

The happy morn is come J. Haiveis 

The head, that once was crowned . T. Kelly 
The heavenly child in.. .Saniolius Victorinus 

The heavens are telling high and .J. Keble 

The heavens declare His glory J. Condor 

The heavens declare Thy glory. Lord !./. Watts 
The hour is come ; the feast.£. H. Bickerstetk 
The hour of my departure's come. ..M. Bruce 
The King of heaven His table. ..P. Doddridge 
The King of love my Shepherd..//. W. Baker 
The King of saints, how fair His face./. Watts 
The Lamb's high banquet. . Tr., J. M. Neale 
The last loud trumpet's. . . . Tliomas de Celano 
'i he law commands and makes us . . ./. Watts 

The leaves around me falling H. F, Lyte 

The life which God's incarnate.Tr., £. Casuiall 

The livelong night we've toiled in y. Keble 

The long-expected morn J'. Kelly 

The Lord descended from above. T. Sternhold 
The Lord himself, the mighty. Tate and Brady 
The Lord ! how fearful is His name !./. Watts 
The Lord ! how wondrous are His.../, li'atts 
The Lord is King! child of the dust !. 5^. Conder 
The Lord is King, lift up thy voice.. 7". Conder 
The Lord is my_ Shepherd, no.. J. Montgomery 

" The Lord is risen indeed ! " T. Kelly 

The Lord Jehovah calls P. Doddridge 

The Lord Jehovah lives /'. Hastings 

The Lord Jehovah reigns, And /. Watts 

The Lord Jehovah reigns, His /. Watts 

The Lord Jehovah reigns. Let /. Watts 

'Ihe Lord my pasture shall prepare. y. Addison 

The Lord my Shepherd is /. Watts 

'I'he Lord of glory is my light /. Watts 

The Lord of might from Sinai's brow./?. Heber 
The Lord of Sabbaths let us. . . .6'. Wesley, Jr. 

The Lord on high ascends Ambrose 

The Lord, our God, is clothed. ...//. K. White 
The Lord our God is Lord of all..//. K. White 

The Lord, the God of glory Miss A. Steele 

The Lord, the Judge, before His /. Waits 

The Lord, the mighty God, is great.. .£■. Osier 
The Lord will come and not be slow. 7. Milton 
The Lord will come, the earth shall. ./iT. H,ber 
I'he Lord will happiness divine. . . . W. Cowpcr 

The man is ever blessed /. Watts 

The mercies of my God and King. . //. /'. Lyte 
The mighty frame of glorious grace.../. Watts 



The mighty gates of eartli unbar. . . G. Weissel 
The mind was formed to mnunt.Miss A. Steele 
The morning dawns upon thc^. Montgomery 

'I he morning flowers display 6". Wesley, yr. 

The morning light is breaking. . . .S. F. Smith 
The morning purples all the sky 

Ambrose, Tr., A. R. Thompson 
The night becomes as day . . . Tr., E. Caswall 
The pastor's voice we lov'd to hear. .E. Osier 
The peace which God alone reveals. y. Newton 

The people of His choice A.M. Toplady 

The people of the Lord T. Kelly 

The people that in darkness sat..^. Morrison 

The pity of the Lord /. Watts 

The praying Spirit breathe C. Wesley 

The precious seed of weeping.. C. y. P. Spitta 
The Prince of Salvation in triumph. 6". F. Smith 

The prodigal, with Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 

The promise of my Father's love /. Watts 

The promises I sing ...P. Doddridge 

The race that long in darkness y. Morrison 

The rainbow shines ; no fabling . T. Campbell 
The roseate hues of . . . . Mrs. C. F. Alexander 
The royal banner is unfurled. Tr., y. Chandler 
The royal banners forward go 

Verientius Fortunatus, Tr., J. M. Neale 
The Sabbath day has reached .Miss C. Elliott 
The sacred season now. . .Tr., J. Chandler (a) 

The saints should never be W. Cowper 

The Saviour bids us watch and. . . T. Hastings 
The Saviour calls, let every &3.x.Miss A. Steele 
The Saviour comes, no outward. W, Robertson 

The Saviour kindly calls H. U. Onderdonk 

The Saviour lives, no more to die. . .S. Medley 
The Saviour, oh what ^xi^Xe.^.^ .. .Miss A . Steele 
The Saviour, when to heaven.../". Doddridge 
The seeds which piety and love../". Doddridge 
The shadow of the Almighty's cloud. y. Keble 
The silent joy that sinks so deep. ..y. Keble 
The solemn service now is done. . .5. F. Smith 
The Son of God goes forth to war. . ./?. Heber 
The spacious firmament on high . . .y. Addison 
The Spirit breathes upon the word. W. Cowper 
The Spirit, in our hearts....//. U, Onderdonk 

The Spirit, like a peaceful dove /. Watts 

The Spirit on the waters.. .. C. Wordsivorth 
The Spirit to our hearts ...//. U. Onderdonk 
The star of morn now wakes... Tr., W. Mercer 
The starry firmament on high ... ./?. Grant 
The strain upraise of joy. . . Tr., y. M. Neale 

The Sun is sinking fast Tr., E. Caswall 

The Sun of righteousness 3'. Wesley, yr. 

The Sun of righteousness on me....C Wesley 
The Sunday morn again is here. . . y. M. Neale 

The supper of the Lamb to Tr , W. Mercer 

The swift declining day P. Doddridge 

The tempter to my soul hath.. 5^. Montgomery 
The time is short ere all that live. .y. Hoskins 
The triumphs of the martyred .Tr., R. Mant 
'1 he trumpet sounds, the day has. Tr., H. Mills 

The voice of free grace cries R. Bt^rdsall 

The voice that breathed o'er Eden y. Keble 

The winds were howling o'er the deep. .^. Heber 
The winged herald of the day 

Latin Hymn, Tr., y. M. Neale 

The ■Word from His Tr., J. M. Neale (a) 

The 'Word, with God the Tr., y. Chandler 

The world can neither give... y. y1/aj«>« (partly) 
The world is very evil 

Bernard De Morlaix, It., J. M. Neale 

The year begins with Thee. ./. Keble 

Thee, King of saints ! we praise C. Wesley 

Thee to laud in songs divine C. Wesley 

Thee we adore. Almighty Lord E. Osier 

Thee we adore, eternal Lord T. Cotterill 

Thee we adore, eternal Name ! /. Watts 

Thee will 1 love, my Strength .Tr., y. Wesley 
Their hearts shall not be. . ...Miss y. E. Leeson 
There is a blessed home H. W. Baker 



716 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



There is a book, who runs may read. .J. Keble 
There is a calm -for those who. J. Montgomery 
There is a dear and hallowed. .Mrs A. Taylor 

There is a fountain filled with W. Co-wper 

There is a glorious world of light J. Taylor 

There is a God ! all nature Miss A. Steele 

There is a green hill far. Mrs. C. F.Alexander 

There is a holy sacrifice Misi C. Elliott 

'Ihere is a house not made with /. IVaits 

There is a land of pure delight /. IVatts 

There is a Uttlc lonely Md. .A/rs. M. G. Saffery 

There is a sale and secret place H. F. Lyte 

There is a spot of consecrated. .Miss C. Elliott 
There is an hour of hallowed. ..W^. B. Tapfian 
There is an hour of peaceful. . ../F. B. Tappan 
There is an hour when I must part. . . .A. Reed 
There on a high majestic throne ..../. IVatts 
There's a friend for little c\\'Mx^a..A. Midlane 

There's a wideness in Cod's F. IV. Faber 

There's not a bird with lonely nest..C T. Noel 
These are the crowns that we shall. .//. Bonar 
These glorious minds, how bright. . . ./. Watts 

These mortal joys how soon P. Doddridge 

They come, God's messengers. . . .R. Campbell 
They whose course on earth is. . ..J. M. Neale 
Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord \..P. Doddridge 

Thine for ever, God of Mrs. M. F. Maude 

Thine holy days returning R. Palmer 

Thine, Lord, is wisdom. Thine.. Tr., y. Wesley 

Think, O ye, who fondly W. B. Collyer 

Think well how Jesus trusts .. .,F. W. Faber 
This day by Thy creating word . W. W. How 
This day the Light of heavenly. . . W. W. Ho%v 
This day the Lord hath called. f{^. //. Bathurst 

This God is the God we adore J. Hart 

This is not my place of resting //. Bonar 

This is the day of toil //. Botiar 

This is the day the Lord hath made. ./. Watts 
This is the word of truth and love..../. Watts 
This life's a dream, an empty show.. ./. Watts 
This place is holy ground ... .J. Montgomery 
This stonp to Thee m faith we. .7. Montgomery 
This world is poor trom shore to shore. C. Giles 
This world would be a wilderness.. 5. Beddome 
Those whom many a land divides .y. M. Neale 
Thou art gone to the grave, but we. . .R. Heber 
Thou art my hiding-place, O Lord .. T. Raffles 
Thou art my Portion. O my God !.. . /. Watts 
Thou art, O God, the life and light. . T. Moore 
Thou art the Way, 10 Thee. . G. W. Doane 

Thou boundless source of O. Heginbothom 

Thou brightness of the _ . .Tr., y. C/taiidler 
Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb ! y, Cennick 
Thou framer of the light and daik. . . y. Keble 

Thou friend of sinners, who hast E. Osier 

Thou glorious sovereign of the.../". Doddridge 

Thou God. all glory, honor, power N. Tate 

Thou God of truth. Thou Lord of. . . Ambrose 

Thou gracious God, and kind W. Goode 

Thou great Creator, art possest C Cofflti 

Thou hidden love of God, whose might 

G. Tersteegen, Tr., y. Wesley 
Thou hidden Source of calm repose! C. Wesley 
Thou Judge of quick and dead . ..C. Wesley 
Thou icnowest. Lord, that they . . . .J . A^nstice 
Thou Lamb of God ! that on the. . .. T. Haweis 

Thou Lord of all above B. Beddome 

Thou lovely Source of true Miss A. Steele 

Thou, O CInist. art all I want C. Wesley 

Thou, G Lord, in tender love C. Wesley 

Thou of old time hast loved us..W. Cowper {a) 
Thou only source of true. . . .Miss A. Steele (a) 

Thou only Soverei.gn of my Miss A . Steele 

Thou plenteous source of light. ._/. H. Gurney 
Thou refuge of my weary soul. .Miss A. Steele 

Thou Saviour from Thy throne R. Palmer 

Thou sepst my feebleness C. Wesley 

Thou Son of God, and Son of man.. y. Ryland 
Thou spak'tt the word, and into one..C. Coffin 



Thou very present Aid C. Wesley 

Thou, who art enthroned above ! G. Sandys 

Thou who a tender parent art R. HillCi) 

Thou who earnest from above /. M. Neale 

Thou who didst leave Thy.. ..Tr., R. Casivall 
Thou, who didst on Calvary ...,./. D. Burns 
Thou, who loll'st the year around. .A^. Palmer 
Thou, whom my soul admires above../. Watts 

Thou, whose almighty word y. Marriott 

Thou whose never failing arm H. F. Lyte 

Though all the world my choice. .C Tersteegen 
Though I speak with.Tr., MissC. Winkworth. 

Though in midst of life we be M. Lnther 

Though nature's strength decay. ... 7". Olivers 
Though now the nations sit beneath. .i. Bacon 
Though sorrows rise and dangers ...R. Heber 
Though troubles assail and dangers. y. Newton 
Thrice blessed are the pure in ... .y. Keble (a) 

Thrice happy man, who fears the /. Watts 

ihrice happy souls, who born.. .P. Doddridge 
Thrice holy God, of wondrous.. ..y. Chandler 

Throned high is Jesus now T. y. yudkin 

Through all the changing scenes of. . .N. Tate 
Thiough all the dangers 'of ;he night. 7". Kelly 
Through endless years Thou. Tate and Watts 

Through every age, eternal God ! /. Watts 

Through good report and evil, Lord H. Bonar 
Through sorrow's night and ...H. K. White 
Through the day Thy love has spared. T. Kelly 
Through the love of God oMx.Mrs. M. B.Peters 
Thus far my God hath led me on.. .J. Fawcett 

Thus far the Lord has led me on /. Watts 

Thus saith the mercy of tlie Lord .. /. Watts 
Thus the eternal Father spake. . /. Watts 
Thus we confess the Saviour's love. . .E. Osier 

Thy bounties, gracious Lord! Miss E. Scott 

Thy Father's house ! R, Palmer 

Thy glory, Lord, the heavens. 7. Montgomery 
Thy goodness. Lord, our souls. T. Gibbons 

Tliy gracious presence. O my. ..Miss A. Steele 

Thy holy day's r'tturning R. Palmer 

Thy home is with the humble. . . .F. II'. Faber 
Thy lif; I read, my dearest Lord I..S. Stennett 
Thy mercy heard my infant prayer .R. Grant 
Thy mercy, my God ! is the theme, .y. Stocker 

Thy name, almighty Lord ! /. Watts 

Thy presence, gracious God I. . . J. Fa-wcett 
Thy sacred influence. Lord, impart.. .E. Osier 

Ihy way, not mine, O Lord ! H. Bonar 

Thy way, O God ! is in the sea y. Fawcett 

Thy will be done ! in devious way.y. Bowring 
Thy word, almighty Lord ! . .J. Montgomery 

Thy works, not mine, O Christ H. Bonar 

Till He come, O let the ....E. H. Bickerstetk 

Till its holy hours are past y. M. Neale 

Time by moments steals away.. y. Neivton 
Time hastens on, ye longing. . . P. Doddridge 

Time is winging us away /. Burton 

Time, thou speedest.Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 

Time's sun is fast setting ....H, Bonar 

'T is a pleasant thing to see H. F. Lyte 

'T is a point I long to know ..y. Newton 

'T is by the faith of joys to come /. Waits 

'T is by Thy strength the mountains./. Watts 
'T is done: — that new and . ..//. W. Baker 
'T is done,— th' important act is. ..S. F. Smith 
'T is faith supports my feeble soul. j5. Beddome 
" 'T is finished," let the joyful . . . .S. Stennett 
" "T is finished ! '_' so the Saviour. . ..S'. Stennett 
'T is for conquering kings to.Tr.,y. Chandler 
'T is God, the Spirit, leads . J. Montgomery 

'T is heaven begun below . . J. Swain 

'T is midnight, and, on Olive's. JF. B. Ta/>pan 

'T is my happiness below //'. Cowper 

'T is not a cause of small import./". Doddridge 

'T is not that I did choose Thee y. Conder 

'T is pure delight without alloy /. Watts 

'T is sweet to rest in lively A. M. Toplady 

'T is the great Father v/s..Mrs. M. C. Saffery 



INDEX OF IDTMNS. 



717 



To bless Thy chosen race JV. Tate 

To Calvary, Lord, in spirit now E. Denny 

To Christ, the Lord, let every S. Stenneti 

To Christ, the Prince of peace.Tr., ^. Caswall 

To-day, O Lord, a holier work C. Coffin 

To-day, the Saviour calls S. F. Smith 

To-day, the Saviour rose J. Hoskins 

To-day, Thy mercy calls me O. AUeti 

To God be glory, peace.. Tr., Tate and Brady 
To God I cried when troubles rose. . ../. Walts 
To God most awful and most. J. Montgomery 

To God the Father, God the Son /. Watts 

To God the Father, God the Son . .E. Osier 
To God, the great, the ever-blessed../. Watts 

To God, the only Wise, our ...I. Waits 

To God, the only Wise, who .. /. Vi^atts 

To hail J bine advent, Lord...Tr., W. Mercer 
To hail Thy rising. Sun of life. ...J. Morrison 

To heaven I lift mine eyes /. Watts 

To heaven I lift my waiting eyes. . ../. Watts 

To Him that chose us first /. Watts 

To Him who loved the souls of men ./. Watts 
To Jesus, our exalted Lord . . .Miss A. Steele 
To Jesus, the Crown of my hope. . W. Cowper 
To Thee, my God and Saviour. ... 7". Haiueis 

To-morrow, Lord! is Thine P. Doddridge 

To our almighty Maker, God . . ./. Watts 

To our Redeemer's glorious Miss A. Steele 

To praise our Shepherd's W. H. Havergal 

To praise the ever-bounteous J. Needham 

To spend one sacred day /. Watts 

To the name of God on high H. Bonar 

To the name that brings salvation. y. jW. Neale 
To Thee be glory, honor, praise . . . Theodulph 
To Thee, my God and Saviour!.. ..7*. Haweis 
To Thee, my God, whose presence. ../. Mason 
To Thee, my Shepherd and. . .C. Heginhothom 

To Thee, O dear, dear J.S. B. Monsell 

To Thee, O Lord, with dawning .R. Heber 

To Thy pastures fair and large .J. Men ick 

To Thy temple I repair .J. Montgomery 

To us a Child of hope is born M. Bruce 

To your Creator, God Miss A . Steele 

Together with those symbols .J. Cennick 

Too long, alas, I vainly sought 

J. Burridge, horn J. Cennick 

Too soon we rose, the symbols H. Bonar 

Tossed upon life's raging G. W. Bethune 

Trembling before Thine awful./l. L. Hillhouse 

Trinity, Unity, Deity J. M. Neale 

Triumphant Lord, 1 hy goodness./". Doddridge 
Triumphant Zion ! lift thy head../'. Doddridge 
True bread of life in pitying mercy. ..H. Bonar 
Truths which prophets sought in vain./i. Osier 
'T was by an order from the Lord. . . ./. Watts 

'T was on that dark, that doleful /. Watts 

'T was t^e commission of our Lord... /. Watts 

Unite, my roving thoughts P. Doddridge 

United prayers ascend to Thee.. W. B. Collyer 

Unshaken as the sacred hill . ./. Watts 

Unveil, O Lord, and on us shine.y. H. Newman 

Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb! /. Watts 

Up to the hills I lift mine eyes /. Watis 

Up to the Lord, who reigns on high. /. ll'atts 

Uphold me. Lord, too prone to //. /". Lyte 

Uplift the blood-red banner B. Gough 

Upon the Gospel's sacred page. . . ._/. Boivring 

Upward I lift mine eyes /. Watts 

Upward, O Lord I to Thee .H. Bateman 

Upward where the stars are burning./i'^. Bonar 
Vain are all terrestrial pleasures, . . .D. E. Ford 
Vain are the hopes the sons of men.../. Watts 

Vain, delusive world ! adieu ! C Wesley 

Vain man, thy fond pursuits forbear. . ._/. Hart 
Vain were all our toil and labor. ...//. F. Lyie 

Victorious from the dreadful fight E. Osier 

Virgin-born, we bow before Thee R. Heber 

Wait, my soul I upon the Lord JV. F. Lloyd 

Wait, O my soul ! thy Maker's. ...B. Beddomt 



Wake and lift up thyself, my heart. .... 7". Ken 
Wake ! awake for. . . .Tr., Miss C. Winkmorth 
Wake from the dead, new life begin. . . E. Osier 

Wake the song of jubilee L. Bacon 

Wake thee, O Zion ! thy mourning./?. Palmer 
Waked by the trumpet's sound ..C, Wesley 
Warrior kings, fresh glory. Jr.,/. Chandler (a) 
Was it for me, dear Lord, for me..H. Bateman 
Watchman, tell us of the night !. . ./. Boivring 
Wayfarers in the wilderness, .y^. R. Thompson 

We are but strangers T. R. Taylor 

We are little Christian, ..1/rj. C. F. Alexander 

We are living, we are dwelling A. C. Coxe 

We bid Thee welcome in the. . .J. Montgomery 

We bless the Prophet of the Lord /. Watts 

We cannot always trace the way. . J. Bowring 

We come, O Lord ! before Thy L. Bacon 

We did not see Thee lifted high../. H. Gurney 

We give immortal praise /. Watts 

We give Thee but rhine own W. W. How 
We hail Thee, Lord, thy church's rock 

N. L. Zitizendor/^ ixova Jacobi 

We have a house above C. Wesley 

We lift our hearts to Thee /. Wesley 

We love 1 hee. Lord, yet not. Mrs. J. A. Elliott 
We mourn for those -who. Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 
We saw Thee not when Thou. . ./. H. Gurney 
We sing His love who once was slain . .R, Hill 

We sing the deep mysterious P. Doddridge 

We sing the praise of Him who died . . T. Kelly 
We sing to Thee, Thou Son.Tr., J. Cennick (a) 
We sinners, Lord, with. Bernard de Clairvaux 

We stand in deep repentance R. Palmer 

We stand on hallowed ground E. Osier 

We thank Thee, Father K.Mrs.L.H. Sigourney 
We thank Thee, Lord, for this our./. Cennick 
We tread the path our. .Mrs. A . L. Barbauld 
We wake ! we wake ! ye heavenly. . T. Ken (a) 
Weary of wandering from my God. ..C. Wesley 
Weary sinner, keep thine eyes.^. M. Toptady 
Weep not for a brother deceased . , C. Wesley 
Welcome, brethren ! enter in. . . ,/. Edmeston 
Welcome, days of solemn meeting. 5". F. Smith 
Welcome, O Saviour ! to my heart..//. Bourne 
Welcome, sweet day, of days the best. 6'. Browne 

Welcome, sweet day of rest ! /. Watts 

Welcome, Thou victor in the strife 

B. Schmolke, Tr., Miss C. Winkworth 
Welcome, welcome, dear Redcem'r \.W. Mason 

Welcome, welcome, sinner, here J. Conder 

We're bound for yonder land T. Kelly 

We've no abiding city here T. Kelly 

What a friend we have in Jesus . . . .H. Bonar 
What a strange and ..... Miss D. A . Thrupp 
What are these arrayed in white. . C. Wesiey 
What are these in bright array/. Montgomery 
What are those soul-reviving. ./. Montgomery 
What can relieve the troubled W. H. Bathurst 
What equal honors shall we bring . . /. Watts 
What finite power with ceaseless.;!/?'.?^ E. Scott 
What glory gilds the sacred page. . W. Cowper 

What grace. O Lord, and beauty E. Denny 

What hath God wrought ! might, . . /'. Gibbons 

What is life ? 't is but a vapor T. Kelly 

What majesty and grace 5. Stennett 

What our Father does is well 

B. Schmolke, Tr.. //. W. Baker 
What scenes of horror and of dread. y. Fawceti 
What secret place, what distant star. 7. H. Gill 

What shall I render to my God /. Watts 

What shall the dying sinner do /. Watts 

What shall we ask of God in. . ./. Montgomery 

What sinners value I resign /. Watts 

What star is this, with beams so bright 

C.Coffin,;Vx.,J. Chandler 

What strange perplexities arise 5. Davies 

What though downy slumbers.../". Doddridge 
What though my frail eyelids. .A.M. Toplady 
What though the arm of P. Doddridge 



S-0 / 



718 



INDEX OF HYMNS. 



What various hindrances we meet. fK. Co-wper 
Whate'er my God. ..Tr., Miss C. Winkivortk 
When adverse winds.. .Mrs. L. H. Sigourney 
When all Thy mercies, O my God \.J. Addison 
When along life's thorny road. ... y.G. Deck 
When as returns this. ...y)/rj. A. L. Barbauld 
When ac this distance, Lord !..../". Doddridge 
When at Thy footstool, Lord ! I bend.//. F. Lyte 
When, bending o'er the brink of. W. B. Collyer 

When blooming jouth is Miss A . Steele 

When came in flesh the incarnate. J. Anstice 
When Christ came down. j)/rj. C. F. Alexander 
When darkness long has veiled my. JK. Cowper 

When doomed lo death the .VV. C. Bryant 

When downward to the darksome. .Ti. Pahner 
When first before His mercy-seat. . .J. Newton 
When first o'erwhelmed with sin and._/. G. Deck 
When gathering clouds around I view./?. Grant 
When (lod of old came down from. . . .J. Keble 
When God restored our captive state./. Watts 
When God revealed His gracious. . . ./. IVatts 
When, gracious Lord ! when shall it. C I'.'esley 
When human hopes all v/\l\\ev.Miss C. Elliott 
When I can read my title clear . ../. IVatts 
When I can trust my all with God..y. Conder 
'^Vhen I survey the wondrous cross.../. Watts 

_-When I view my Saviour bleeding R. Lee 

When in our hour of.Tr., Miss C. Winkwortk 

When in the hour of lonely woe ._/. Cotider 

When Israel forth from Egypt went.../t. Osier 

When Israel of the Lord beloved W. Scott 

When Jesus dwelt in mortal clay. . . T. Gibbons 
When Jesus left His Father's. ._/. Montgomery 
When Jordan hushed his waters../". Campbell 
When languor and disease ... .A. M. Toplady 
When, like a stranger on our. J. Montgome/y 
When, Lord! to this our ...//. U. Onderdonk 
When, marshaled on the nightly.//. A". White 

When morning gilds the skies A. Caswall 

When musing sorrow weeps the. . . .G. T. Noel 
When, my Saviour ! shall I be . . . C Wesley 
When, O d:ar Jesus ! when shall \.J. Cennick 

When on Sinai s top I see J. Montgomery 

When on the brink of death. . . . W. B. Collyer 
When our heads are bowed . . . .H. H. Milman 
When, overwhelmed with grief ..../. Watts 
When, rising from the bed of death. J. Addison 
When shades of night around us close. .C. Coffin 
When shall I hear the inward voice. . C Wesley 
When sha>ll I, Lord, a journey take../". H. Gill 
When shall the voice of singing. .J. Edmeston 

When shall Thy love constrain C. Wesley 

When sins and fears prevailing.. A//ji A. Steele 
When streaming from the. .../K. Skrubsole,Jr. 

When the weary seeking rest H. Bonar 

When the worn spirit wants J. Edmeston 

When the blind suppliant in the..;K. C. Bryant 

When the patriarch was Tr., E. Caswall 

When the soft dews of kindly sleep.. .J. Keble 
When this passing world \%. .R. M. McCheyne 
When Thou, my righteous .. .Mrs. S. Shirley 
When through the torn sail the wild.. /f. Heber 

When thy mortal life is fled S. F. Smith 

When time seems short, and. ...G. W. Bethiine 
When waves of trouble round. .. V)/m C. Elliott 

When we, our wearied limbs to rest N. Tate 

When, wounded -.ox^. ...Mrs. C. F. Alexander \ 
Whence do our mournful thoughts.. ../. Walls 
Whene'er the angry passions. . ..Miss A. Steele 
Where high the heavenly temple... M. Bruce j 
Where is my God ? does He. . . Miss A. Steele i 

Where, O my soul, oh where 7'. Scott 

Where two or three, with sweet.. ..S. Stennett 
Where wilt Thou put . .Mrs. L. H, Sigourney 
Wherever two or three may meet.. T. Hastings 
Wherefore so heavy, O my soul . E. Cas-wall 

Wherewith, O Go-i, shall I draw C. Wesley 

While beauty clothes the fertile.. /I//jj^. Steele 
While carnal men, witli all their... .5, Beddome 



While I to grief my soul gave way...y. Newton 
While in sweet communion feeding.. ..£. Denny 
While in this sacred rite of Thine. .5. F. Smith 

While life prolongs its precious T. Dwight 

While mercy invites you T. Hastings 

While my Redeemer's near . . .Miss A. Steele 
While o'er our guilty land, O Lord. ..i". Davies 
While on the veigeof life I stand./'. Doddridge 

While others strive and hope Miss A. Steele 

While shepherds watch their flocks. ...A". Tate 
While thiough this changing.. y. Montgomery 
While verdant hill and blooming./I/?>j.^. Steele 
While, with ceaseless course, the. . .J. Newton 

Whilst Thee I seek Miss H. M. Williams 

Who are these arr.ayed in white. . C. Wesley (a) 
Who are these in bright array . . J. Montgomery 
Who are these like stars appearing 

//. T. Schenk, Tr , Miss F. E. Cox 
Who are these that come from far ? T. Kelly (?) 

Who are they whose little feet J. Edmeston 

Who can describe the joys that rise. ./. Watts 

Who can forbear to sing J. Swain 

Who is this that comes from Edom. . . T. Kelly 
Who is thy neighbor ? He . IF. B. O. Peabody 
Who of men hath skill to..Tr., /. M. Neale (a) 

Who shall ascend Thy heavenly /. Watts 

Who shall the Lord's elect condemn ? /. Watts 

Whom should we love like Ihee H. F. Lyte 

Why do we mourn departing friends. ./. Watts 
Why does your face, ye humble souls ! /. Watts 

Why doth my Saviour weep J. Keble 

Why doth that impious Herod fear 

Coelius Sedulius, Tr.,/. M. Neale 
Why is my heart so far from Thee ..../. Watts 
Why, Saviour, dost Thou come.../i. Campbell 
Why search ye in the narrow..//''. //. Batkurst 
Why should I fear the darkest hour./. Newton 
Why should the children of a King ../. IVatts 
Why should we dread our mortal. E. Osier (a) 
Why should we start and fear to die. ./. Watts 

Why sleep we, my brethren ? /. Hopkins 

Why that soul's commotion 7 . Hastin.^s 

Why will ye waste on trifling.. .P. Doddridge 

Wilt I hou not. my Shepherd J. Sckeffler 

With all my powers of heart and /. Watts 

With anxious eyes I look Miss C. Elliott 

With broken heart and contrite sigh...C Elvin 
With Christ we share a mystic. . J . M. Neale 
With earnest longings of the mind ../. Watts 

With ecstasy of joy . P.Doddridge 

With gentle voice the angel gave. . /. M. Neale 
With glory clad, with strength. Tate a^zd Brady 
With grateful hearts, with joyful . . A. Kippis 
With heavenly power, O Lord, defend . R. Hill 

With humble heart and tongue J. Fawcett 

With joy I see a thousand . . .P. Doddridge 
With joy may I behold the day. ...._/. Merrick 
With joy we hail the sacred . . .Miss H. Auber 

With joy we lift our eyes 7'. Jervis 

With joy we meditate the grace ...../. Watts 

With my substance I will honor B. Francis 

With my whole heart I've sought Thy./. Watts 
With one consent let all the earth . . ..A''. Tate 
With reverence let the saints appear . . /. Watts 
With sacred joy we lift our eyes .... 7". "Jervis 
With songs and honors sounding . . . /. Watts 
With songs of sacred joy ....P. Doddridge 
With tearful eyes I look around. ./if/.fi' C. Elliott 

With tears of anguish I lament 5. Stennett 

With thankful hearts our songs. .£■. Bickersteth 
With transport. Lord ! our souls../". Doddridge 
With willing hearts we tread .... .S". F Smith 
Witness, ye men and angels ! now../>. Btddome 
Within 'Thy temple's hallowed bound. i?. Osier 
Word upreme before creation . .J. Keble 

Work while it is to-day .J. Montgomery 

Workman of God, O lose not F. W. Faber 

Worship, honor, glory, blessing . .E. Osier 
Worship the Lord in the J.S. B. Monsell 



INDEX OF HYMNS. ? 

Worthy the Lamb of boundless .... W. S/iirlty Ye sinners ! fear the Lord T. Dwi, 

Would you win a soul to God. . IV. Hammond Ye sons and daughters of the..Tr.,y. M. Ne. 

Wouldst thou eternal life obtain ...R. Palmer Ye sons of men! v/ith joy .. .. P. Daddric 

Wretched, helpless, and distrest C.Wesley Ye that delight to serve the Lor'l . J.Wa 

Ye angels, who stand ronnA.Miss M. DeFleury Ye that in His courts are found 1 R. H 

Ye boundless realms of joy ! N. Tate Ye that pass by, behold the Man .. .C West 

Ye choirs of New Jerusalem ! Ye trembling souls ! dismiss your. ..5. Beddon 

Fulbert, Tr., 7?. Campbell Ye tribes of Adam ! join . . /. Wat 

Ye daughters of Zion ! declare, have..y. Swain Ye wretched, hungry, starving.. jVzjj A . Ste, 

Ye dying sons of men ! J. Boden Yes, for me, for me Me careth If. Bo 

Ye glittering toys of earth ! Miss A . Steele Yes, He is mine ! and naught of . . . //. F. 

Ye golden lamps of heaven P. Dodd> idge Yes, I do feel, my God, that \.J. S. B. M 

Ye hearts, with youthful vigor. ..P. Doddridg-e Yes, I will bless Thee, O my..&. Hegin 

Ye holy angels, bright. ... R. Baj:t;r (a.) Yes, my native land, I love thee. .6"./' 

Ye holy souls ! in God rejoice /. Watts Yes, the Redeemer rose ..P. D 

Ye humble souls ! approach Miss A. Steele Yes, we trust the day is breaking. . . . 

Ye men and angels, witness now. ..5. Beddome Yield to me now, for I am weak 

Ye mourning saints, whose P. Doddridge Your harps, ye trembling A. h 

Ye nations round the earth ! rejoice ../. Watts Your hearts and tongues, ye saints . 

Ye saints and servants of the.. 7i2/f««i/.5r«^;)' Zion, a mourner long ..B 

Ye saints ! your music bring A. Reed Zion ! awake, thy strength renew. /{' 

Ye servants of a martyred. .. .Tr., i?. Campbell Zion, dreary and in anguish "' . 

Ye servants of God ! your Master C.Wesley Zion is Jehovah s dwelling : . K.iy 

Ye servants of our glorious. . Tr.. R. Catnpbell Zion stands with hills surrr ndcd . .T. heily 

Ye servants of th' almighty King !..../. Watts Zion ! the marvelous story. . W. A . Muhlen 'erg 

Ye servants of the living God ! ;K.i/. i>a^/j?<rj/ Zion! to thy Saviour Tr.,W./?. Ttkam^ion 

Ye servants of the Lord ! P. Doddridge Zion's daughter, weep no.. ..Tr., IT. W. 1 aker 

Ye simple souls that stray J. Wesley j 



s 



